New Metra alert system offers texts and train arrival predictions — but you have to sign up

Metra has launched a new alert system that continues to inform riders about delays and problems, while adding features such as texts and real-time arrival updates.

The commuter rail agency discontinued its current alert system, which was email-only, last week. That means riders will need to sign up for the latest program using metratracker.com.

Metra billed the change as offering “smarter texts, smoother rides.”

Commuters can personalize their messages by selecting specific lines, times and days, and alert types. Those include service alerts about late trains and disruptions, or prediction alerts that give riders advance notice about arrival times.

“Communicating with our customers is a critical part of Metra’s mission, and this new system is a major enhancement, not only because it supplies the timeliest and most accurate data but because for the first time it gives us the ability to communicate via text messaging,” Executive Director Jim Derwinski said in a statement.

With prediction alerts, commuters who select origin and destination stations will receive a list of trains at a specified time.

For example, a weekday commuter who requests a prediction alert for trains leaving the Union Pacific West Line’s Oak Park station en route to Ogilvie Transportation Center around 7 a.m. might receive six options, Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis said.

Those will include real-time information about when operating trains will arrive, as well as scheduled times for trains that haven’t gone into service yet.

The upgrade is the final component of an overhaul of Metra’s GPS tracking system. It improved monitoring of on-time performance, providing more accurate information for passengers listening to announcements, reading digital signs and viewing online. For more information, visit metratracker.com.

mpyke@dailyherald.com