Metra to launch 'quiet car' test run on Rock Island line

The Rock Island line is a mighty good road, to quote the song by Johnny Cash, and starting Monday it will be mighty quiet too, at least at the beginning and end of trains and the beginning and end of the workday.

Metra launches its “quiet car” test program next week on the Rock Island, which runs between Chicago and Joliet. It calls for the first and last passenger cars to be quiet — with no cell-phone calls, no overheard music and subdued conversation — during rush hour, from 6 to 9 a.m. and 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays.

“In other words,” according to a Metra release, “be quiet.”

Metra said it expects the quiet cars to “be largely enforced by peer pressure,” although conductors will be called on to intervene “when necessary.”

If the three-month test program is a success, Metra said, it will be expanded to other lines.

Metra also said the program did not encourage other cars to grow more rowdy, and that passengers should continue to treat one another with courtesy “no matter which car they are in.”