The comfy seats are coming, but ‘complexities’ are slowing new Metra railcars’ rollout
Metra riders will have to wait until late 2026 for the debut of new railcars with cupholders and outlets, officials said last week.
The agency ordered 200 railcars from Alstom in 2021, with the expectation of delivery in 2024.
However, the complexity of designing the cars and building them “from scratch” has caused delays and additional costs, Sean Cronin, Metra’s senior director of mechanical capital projects, explained at a May board meeting.
The Alstom contract was initially $845 million but change orders in late 2024 and spring 2025 have brought the total to $901 million.
Metra board directors approved a related $4.5 million increase to railcar design consultant STV in May and extended their contract. The original STV contract was $10 million.
“This procurement — designing a new car completely from scratch — has added a level of complexity that’s required us to have a longer design process than we originally anticipated and … in that level of complexity spending a little more money,” Cronin noted.
“We believe it’s good money spent. Obviously, these are 40- to 50-year assets … and we need to get it right at the beginning.”
Currently, Alstom is “actually building roof sections of the first car (and) bulkhead walls,” Cronin said.
“They’re actually going to start car shell construction this summer and the hope is they’re going to test the car shell in the fall and start building the first few cars early next year to be delivered in (the) third quarter of 2026.”
Metra expects full-scale delivery of the railcars will begin in 2027 and continue through 2029.
Metra spokesman Michael Gillis previously said the cars “are not an off-the-shelf design, and there still is some design work to complete.”
“Second, there are numerous tests that need to be completed and regulatory rules to meet,” he added. “Sub-vendors also need to ramp up their production, and again, sometimes components are not off-the-shelf technology, either. Integrating all the various systems in the new cars also can be time-consuming.”
The updated railcars will feature lower door entries, better window visibility, cupholders, and nearly all will offer outlets. Video screens will be mounted in the cars to provide up-to-date train/travel information.
The railcars are expected to be deployed on all lines except the Metra Electric, which has a new fleet.
Metra has the option of buying up to 500 new railcars.