Metra, Amtrak Slowly Restore Normal Service With Federal Funds

ILLINOIS — Amtrak will resume normal service slowly over the next few weeks after a year of scaled-back schedules due to COVID-19. Metra will also restore its pre-pandemic service come Memorial Day weekend.

Amtrak's busiest Midwest route — Chicago to Milwaukee — will resume full service on Sunday, traveling much more frequently and with more people in the cars.

Other popular routes connecting Chicago to Quincy, Carbondale and St. Louis will resume full service by July 19.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday that federal relief funding was given to Amtrak in order to restore the nationwide transportation service.

"We've seen demand rising pretty consistently since January," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

Magliari said Amtrak is seeing about 35 percent of their normal ridership, but expect to make that up over the next year.

"We don't expect to return to normal until some point in 2022 or later," he said.

Full Saturday service will resume for Metra riders on the BNSF, Milwaukee North, Milwaukee West, Rock Island District, Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest and Union Pacific West lines, the agency said in a statement.

The Metra Electric line, which runs to the city's South Side and south suburbs, will resume full Saturday service sometime over the summer.

The agency announced last week it was running 61 percent of the trains it ran before the pandemic, citing low ridership and concerns of social distancing.

Still, Metra has slowly begun adding some weekday and weekend trains in anticipation of increased Memorial Day travel. Saturday service remains suspending on the SouthWest Service and Blue Island Branch of the Metra Electric line, the least ridden routes before the pandemic.

The agency still will not run weekend trains on the North Central Service of Heritage Corridor.

For a full schedule of transit re-openings, go to the Amtrak website and Metra website.