WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has turned down Metra’s request for the board to set conditions and compensation for Metra use of three Union Pacific routes in the Chicago area, calling the move premature.
However, the decision released today (Friday, March 13) also set a 60-day deadline to reach an agreement. If the two sides are unable to do so, the STB said it may begin the process of setting terms.
In its decision, the board notes that both sides indicated that productive negotiations had taken place, and that while Metra said UP did not dispute that “essential issues are at an impasse,” UP disagreed.
“Given that both the statutory scheme and the Board’s policy favor negotiated solutions,” the decision says, “the Board therefore disagrees with Metra’s contention that ‘the process for Board resolution, consistent with the statutory framework, should begin now.’”
Underlying the decision is the long-running dispute between Metra and UP over the transfer of operations on Metra’s UP West, Northwest, and North lines. Union Pacific, which had run the trains under a purchase-of-service agreement, had for several years sought to exit commuter operations, and Metra took over operational responsibility as of May 16, 2025 [see “Metra assumes operation …,” Trains.com, May 19, 2025]. Since then, the sides have remained apart on the terms of a operating agreement for Metra’s continued use of the UP lines.
Concerned that without such an agreement, UP could block its use of the three routes, Metra asked the STB to grant it terminal trackage rights on the three lines to ensure its continued operation. The STB granted that request last September [see “STB grants Metra request …,” Trains.com, Sept. 3, 2025]. Union Pacific has appealed that board decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
The ongoing lack of an agreement sent Metra back to the STB in December to ask the regulators to set the contract terms [see “Metra asks STB to settle …,” Trains.com, Dec. 5, 2025]. Metra’s filing acknowledged that the two sides were making progress in some areas, but asserted that “it is clear at this point that the parties will not reach agreement on all remaining disputed issues in a way that would remove the need for board involvement.”
Union Pacific’s response argued that the two sides were making progress, and that Metra’s action was an attempt to stall its federal appeal [see “UP asks regulators to deny …,” Dec. 16, 2025].
While the board declined to act now, it also indicated that the clock was ticking.
“As Metra correctly notes, negotiations should not indefinitely delay the commencement of the conditions and compensation phase where the parties cannot agree, and at least one party seeks Board resolution,” the board said in its 3-0 decision. “The board will therefore set a 60-day negotiating period, which will expire on May 12, 2026 (absent a joint request for additional time).”
After that deadline, the parties will be required to make a joint report to the board indicating issues where agreement has been reached; those that remain unresolved; and whether they believe mediation would be useful, as well as why.
The board’s decision also granted, on a temporary basis, a Union Pacific request for a protective order to halt Metra’s discovery process for the compensation case, saying it is “premature and may ultimately prove unnecessary.”
In a statement to Trains, Union Pacific said it “has always been committed to ensuring that the commuter service provided to millions of Chicago riders will continue. We look forward to continuing to working with Metra on a fair and reasonable resolution to the matter.”
A Metra spokesman had no comment.
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Curious that agreement wasn’t reached before the trains were handed over from UPRR to Metra.
It’s in the intertest of both parties that the trains run. There’s way way way too much constituency for the trains to see them cancelled or to see Metra priced out of the deal. Have to wonder if both sides just wanted to coffee-klatch until it ends up in STB’s in-basket.
STB also is a political agency. I don’t think STB will come up with a dollar number that Metra can’t afford to pay.
Finally, I’d just love to see the three lines renamed “CNW”. Which is fitting because as far as I can see the service is pretty much identical to CNW days. The shop building, the left-hand running, the stations, and the patterns of freight traffic, all that would be recognized by whichever crew or passenger is still alive from before 1996.