Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
^ agreed, the steel metra viaducts through Evanston are in an absolutely embarrassing state of disrepair. I can't believe that the city of Evanston doesn't have the political sway to force metra to do something about them. and it's not like it's a new problem, theyve been like that for decades.
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It's not Metra who's responsible, it's Union Pacific. And the policy of pretty much all freight railroads is that they will only repaint their bridges if the deterioration has started to affect the safety of the structure.
Unfortunately Evanston has very little leverage over a Class I railroad valued at over $100bn.
I've thought for a long time that Metra should just cut a deal with Union Pacific to take over this line up to North Chicago and the Northwest line up to Des Plaines. Neither is really needed for freight anymore, and the relative wealth of the communities along these lines probably means they won't be seeing any new industrial customers anytime soon. But Metra doesn't want to be responsible for even more miles of track to maintain, when their budget is already pretty thin... so the politicians would have to broker the deal and cram it down Metra's throat.