Future Metra city round trip fares may soon look a little different.
Metra’s Board of Directors approved the agency’s fiscal year 2024 budget. This includes significant changes to the way fares are collected and billed across the rail network.
The biggest change in the $1.1 billion budget is the simplification of fare structures based on travel between designated zones on each line.
Currently, Metra has 10 different zones based on distance from downtown Chicago. Metra officials say the new program will reduce that number to just four zones.
We’ll explain how the new system will work, when it will launch, and more.
When will Metra’s new system go into effect?
Metra says the new fare system will go into effect on February 1, 2024.
What will the new ticket prices and fares be?
Under the new zone system, downtown Chicago will serve as its own zone, with Union Station, Ogilvie Transit Center, and Millennium Station serving as Zone 1 for each line.
From there, Zones 2 through 4 cover the city’s outskirts, with Zone 4 being the furthest from downtown.
One-way tickets cost $3.75 from Zone 2 to downtown, $5.50 from Zone 3 to downtown, and $6.75 from Zone 4, based on a simplified formula.
The agency says all one-way trips that don’t end in the downtown corridor will cost $3.75, regardless of distance.
What are the current ticket prices?
For example, if a passenger wants to take the UP-NW line from its start point in Harvard to downtown, the trip currently costs $9.50. Under the new system, the same trip would cost $6.75.
In the Heritage Corridor, a trip from Zone 3, which includes Lemont, to downtown will now cost $6.75. In February, that cost drops to $5.50.
As for HC, a trip between Joliet and Summit currently costs $7.25, but under the new program it will only cost $3.75. The department said the measure is intended to encourage transit use to destinations outside of downtown.
Are there any routes where fares will increase?
With the end of the South Cooke Pilot Program, discounted fares on Metra Electric and Rock Island lines will end.
As a result, fares from University Park to Millennium Station will increase from $3.75 to $5.50, but Metra says the new fares are still lower than pre-pandemic levels.
How does this effect disappear?
The agency says the $6 and $10 day passes will be phased out. Instead, weekday passes can be purchased for twice the price of a one-way ticket.
The company also plans to phase out the 10-trip ticket and instead offer five-packs of one-day passes at 9.5 times the price of a single-trip ticket.
These passes are only available via the Ventra app.
Finally, “surcharge fares,” which impose additional fees for travel outside the zone printed on the ticket, will be phased out.
Monthly passes will continue to be offered and will cost 20 times more than a standard one-way ticket between zones, with Zone 2 travel costing $75, Zone 3 travel $110 and Zone 4 travel $135.
Monthly Pass purchasers are still eligible to purchase a $30 Regional Connect Pass, which allows unlimited travel on CTA and Pace buses.
Finally, $7 all-day fares and $10 weekend passes on weekends and holidays are still available.
The four zone fare structures are assigned as follows:
To the north:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Claiborne to Wilmette
Zone 3: Kenilworth to Ravinia
Zone 4: Highland Park to Kenosha
Milwaukee Area North:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Downtown to Morton Grove
Zone 3: Cook Road from Golf to Lake.
Zone 4: Deerfield to Fox Lake
Upper northwest:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Roads from downtown to Dee
Zone 3: Des Plaines to Arlington Park
Zone 4: Palatine to Harvard
West Milwaukee area:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Downtown to Mannheim
Zone 3: Bensenville to Medina
Zone 4: Roselle to large timber
Uenishi:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Kedzie Avenue to Berkeley
Zone 3: Elmhurst to Lombard
Zone 4: Glen Ellyn to Elburn
BNSF:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Halsted Avenue to Brookfield
Zone 3: Congress Park to Fairview Avenue
Zone 4: Main Street to Route 59 Aurora
heritage corridor
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Summit
Zone 3: Willow Springs and Lemont
Zone 4: Romeoville to Joliet
Rock Island:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2 (mainline): 35th From the streets to Midlothian
Zone 2 (Beverly Branch: Brainerd-to-123)rd street
Zone 3: Oak Forest and Tinley Park (Oak Park Avenue)
Zone 4: Tinley Park (80)th Avenue) to Joliet
Southwest service:
Zone 1: Downtown Chicago
Zone 2: Wrightwood and Ashburn
Zone 3: Oak Lawn to Palos Heights
Zone 4: Palos Park to Manhattan
Metra wire:
Zone 1: Campus from Millennium Station to Museum
Zone 2 (mainline): 18th From the street to Calumet
Zone 2 (South Chicago Branch): 93 from Stony Islandrd street
Zone 2 (Blue Island Branch): State Street (Roselawn) to Blue Island
Zone 3: Parks from Homewood to University.