Centralized Traffic Control System Upgrade

This map shows the location of the project. For projects that do not have a specific location but affect a line/route or the entire system, either the affected lines/routes are shown, or an entire service area map is shown.

If you select the option to “toggle the benefit layer,” you will see an approximation of the area that will benefit from the project.

The degree to which a project improves regional access to the region’s key destinations. Including jobs, retail, healthcare, recreation, and education.

The project improvements to existing assets to make them partially or fully accessible. Including station/stop and area improvements, vehicle accessibility, and accessible communications.

The project impact to ratings from the FTA Transit Economic Requirements Model (TERM).

The project’s minor or major benefits to riders and what proportion of the agency’s riders will benefit from it.

The project impact on overall capacity, reflecting current and planned levels of utilization.

The project impact on reductions or offsets to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated from transit operations.

Project impacts on land use and development, construction, and long-term jobs.

The distribution of project benefits to location(s) identified under the USDOT Justice40 Program.

The project impact to maintenance or improvement of exposure to risk for riders/employees and the project impact to security enhancement.

The project impact on operating costs.

The project impact to maintenance or improvement of exposure to risk for riders/employees and the project impact to security enhancement.

Project impact on maintenance or improvement of service speed and reliability, considering both direct and indirect impacts.

If required, whether or not the project complies with federal, state, local, or other regulatory mandates.

The project impact to climate benefits, such as a reduction in emissions, generated from mode shift to transit and away from private auto-use.

The Project impact to average vehicle ages, compared with Service board benchmarks to prioritize replacing vehicles that are beyond their useful life.

Evaluation Metric Measure
Access to Key Destinations ? Maintains Access to Key Destinations
Accessibility Improvement(s) ? Project is not related to accessibility
Asset Condition (FTA TERM Rating) ? Asset(s) rated 2-3
Benefit to Riders ? Helps to maintain current benefits to riders
Capacity Benefit and Need ? Not related to capacity of transit operations or facilities
Climate Agency Operating Impacts ? Project does not effect GHG emissions
Economic Impact ? No economic impact
Equity Based on Residential Geography ? Project is not location specific or benefits entire service area
Impact on Customer and Employee Safety ? Project directly provides safety benefit/improvement
Impact on Operating Cost ? Decrease
Impact on System Security ? Project implements new security protection and/or prevention
Impact to Service Speed/Reliability ? Needed to maintain current speek/reliability
Regulatory Requirements ? Yes
Ridership/Mode Shift Impacts ? Maintains assets necessary for transit ridership
Vehicle Useful Life ? Asset is not a vehicle with a useful life

Project Description

Metra’s aging communications systems will be updated, improved, or replaced under this project to implement state-of-the-art solutions that are more reliable. Sub-projects may include, but may not be limited to, the improvement or replacement of Metra’s current radio systems, phone systems, and data-transfer systems. Project activities may reduce the long-term operating, audit, monitoring, and repair costs while improving the reliability of various communications systems. The primary means of communicating with the field is the ATCS radio network which is being decommissioned within the next 3-5 years. Backup modes of communications rely on aging copper circuits which are costly and unreliable. Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) over Interoperable Train Control Messaging (ITCM) leverages the PTC communications infrastructure to transport controls and indications, which increases reliability and decreases cost by converging infrastructure.