Maddening Metra

I've been taking a Metra train to work since fall of last year. I have two Metra apps, Metra On-Time and Ventra. What's amazing to me in this day and age is that we can put a car into space, cars can drive by themselves, you have artificial intelligence, guilt-free ice cream, elevators that move sideways, super smartphones, umbrellas with cup holders and LED slippers, yet Metra is often not capable of the most simple task; letting me know when a train will arrive in my station. How hard can this be?

There is a PA system and these two wonderful apps I have on my really smart phone, yet almost on a daily basis, either on the way to or from work, you either hear one second that your train will arrive in your station in seven minutes, followed immediately by an announcement that your train is now arriving; or there is no announcement at all and the train just shows up. Or, the apps tell you your train will arrive on time only often to be wrong. In fact I don't think these apps are even connected to anything (like GPS tracking) other than a clock that counts down to when the train is scheduled to show up.

The apps are supposed to provide alerts of train delays. Sometimes they do, but mostly they don't.

This might not sound like a big deal, but when it's cold out and you want to be in a certain car based on where you need to be let off the train, or you can't move too fast due to your age or a physical ailment and when dozens of people have to scramble last minute to get on the train, this ordeal becomes quite a pain in the rear car.

Bruce Handler

Niles