WASHINGTON — The ongoing dispute between Metra and Union Pacific over commuter rail operations in the Chicago area was back before the Surface Transportation Board as the board resumed activity following the shutdown of the federal government. Both parties filed a joint status report on negotiations today (Nov. 13), while Metra offered a fairly brief response to a UP filing and board action prior to the shutdown.
The status report is required under the Sept. 3 decision granting Metra trackage rights on the UP West, Northwest, and North commuter routes [see “STB grants Metra request …,” Trains.com, Sept. 3]. In two sentences, it says the sides have exchanged proposals on compensation but have not reached agreement, and that negotiations continue.
Metra’s filing is in response to a Sept. 29 Union Pacific filing seeking either a stay of the trackage rights decision or imposition of interim conditions regarding indemnity and liability, because the parties were unable to reach their own interim agreement. On Sept. 30, the STB re-imposed the conditions that existed as of June 30, 2025, under of the most recent purchase of service agreement governing Metra operations on UP, and therefore denied the stay request as moot.
That decision noted Metra had not had an opportunity to respond to the UP request, but that action was needed “to ensure that defined terms and conditions are in place” because of the looming government shutdown. Metra’s opportunity to respond was delayed until after the shutdown.
In that four-page filing, Metra said it did not oppose the board’s decision. But it also took exception to some details of the UP filing, most notably the freight railroad’s statement that Metra’s most recent proposal on indemnity and liability constituted “a significant and unwarranted departure from establish industry practice and the parties’ prior agreements.” Metra argued in response that those prior agreements “do not reflect current operating realities now that Metra directly operates commuter service rather than UP operating them on behalf of Metra.” The latest Metra proposal, it says, reflects its terms “with other similarly situated rail carriers.”
Metra “should not — and cannot as a steward of taxpayer dollars — accept responsibility for UP’s acts and omissions related to UP’s own operations and unrelated to Metra, although that result is precisely what UP previously has sought and continues to seek,” the filing concludes. “… It is equitable and fault-based indemnity and liability language that Metra is seeking to negotiate with UP.”
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