Jan. 06--Metra says it will have personnel on duty overnight Monday to help ensure that trains will run on time during the morning rush hour Tuesday, despite the expected snow and cold.
"We're taking all precautions," Metra Deputy Executive Director Peter Zwolfer said at a news conference. "We're not taking any chances."
In addition to around-the-clock staffing at key locations like major switching points, Metra will keep locomotive fuel tanks topped off and have new switch heaters and cold air blowers on hand to keep equipment operating, Executive Director Don Orseno said.
Metra intends to be "as far ahead as we can possibly be" of the approaching snowstorm, Orseno said.
There were delays on many of Metra's lines Monday morning as temperatures dipped below zero, but officials said not all of them were directly related to the weather.
Mechanical problems on an Amtrak train caused several delays on the Rock Island line, officials said. "If Amtrak has a problem, we all have a problem " Orseno said.
Metra says it has learned from last year's long string of Arctic-air days how to respond better to weather-related problems and expects to perform much better this winter.
One of the biggest problems Metra faced last year was frozen doors on coaches. Metra has replaced the door workings on about a third of its 300-plus older-model fleet of coaches this year, Orseno said.
Most of the door problems last year were caused by snow and ice that blew into door mechanisms, he said.
"We think we have done a lot to make this year better than last year," Orseno said.
In November, Metra said it had added three high-pressure, cold-air jet blowers to clear snow and ice from tracks and 20 yard switch heaters to prevent snow from clogging exchanges. Metra said it also overhauled its email alert system and real-time tracking for trains on its website, another major issue last winter.
