Michael Gillis

The Metra commuter rail system is considering renaming lines to make the system easier to understand for new and occasional riders. To get feedback on the idea from customers, the agency is conducting an online survey and scheduled three public meetings at downtown terminals this week. On Tuesday, an open house was held at Chicago Union Station, on Wednesday, it was at Ogilvie Transportation Center, and today they're at Millennium Station and La Salle Street Station from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. All Metra routes

We decoded Metra's confusing directions for how to access Millennium Station by elevator while the Randolph/Michigan lift is indefinitely out of commission.

Benefits of increased cooperation could include fare integration and an alternative to the costly Red Line extension.

It's great that the design calls for pedestrianizing Cornell Drive, but the city plans to create more capacity than ever, which will only encourage more driving.

It's tempting to call out Metra for the fact that the plan doesn't include expanding service, but insufficient funding for the system is to blame.

Metra, the regional commuter train operator, is seeking a consultant to develop "creative recommendations" on how to change its fare structure. The consultant would be in charge of finding the pros and cons of the current fare structure, comparing it to Metra's commuter rail peers around the country, and building a model that allows Metra to test how different fare policies would affect ridership and revenue. The Request for Proposals is due at the end of the month.

Metra wants to lock in its 66-year-old train car design for another 30 years. The agency, which hasn't yet adopted a strategic plan that it started writing four years ago, seems to adhere to a policy of "if it ain't broke don't fix it." The problem is that they don't realize that things are indeed broken.

Even though Metra never plans to accept Ventra transit cards for payment aboard its trains, the commuter railroad now claims that it has accepted Ventra all along – and thus already fulfilled a state mandate to adopt Ventra by 2015. Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told Streetsblog that "we can already accept" Ventra cards, but only in the most obtuse possible sense: as a MasterCard debit card, presented in person to a cashier.