Metra said it will suspend at least four of its commuter lines Friday, affecting more than 165,000 weekday riders, if there is nationwide strike by freight railroad workers.
It is a worst-case scenario, but it could force nearly 60% of Metra’s 281,000 average weekday riders to find alternative methods of commuting.
Four of Metra’s 11 lines will be suspended immediately upon a strike, the agency’s spokesman Michael Gillis said. These lines are BNSF, Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest and Union Pacific West.
Gillis said these lines are affected immediately because they are owned by or directly operated by freight railroads.
“If the work stoppage occurs, we expect there will not be service on these lines,” Gillis said.
Two lines that Metra owns, Electric and Rock Island, won’t be affected by a strike and will continue operating as usual.
The remaining five lines — Heritage Corridor, Milwaukee North, Milwaukee West, North Central Service and Southwest Service — remain in limbo. These lines use tracks that are owned by, intersect with tracks or are dispatched by freight railroads. Metra is still working with those partners to understand how it will be impacted.
The possibility of a strike is also being felt at Amtrak, which relies heavily on freight railways. Amtrak preemptively canceled long-distance train routes mostly heading out of Chicago in order to prevent its passenger trains from being stranded, NBC News reported.
The passenger rail agency suspended routes from Chicago to Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco. It also suspended routes between Los Angeles and San Antonio.
“These initial adjustments could be followed by impacts to all Long Distance and most State-Supported routes,” Amtrak said in a statement to NBC News.
Freight railroad workers are on the brink of a nationwide work stoppage that could cause the country to lose billions of dollars a day and further burden the supply chain.
Negotiations between unions representing 115,000 workers and railways that include BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Kansas City Southern have been going on for two years but stalled this summer. Most of the unions have already reached a tentative agreement, but those employees could refuse to cross the picket line if a deal is not made with the rest.
In July, President Joe Biden blocked a freight railroad strike for at least 60 days when he named a board of arbitrators to step in to help with contract negotiations. That special board recommended last month that workers get 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses over a five-year contract.
If a settlement or agreement is not reached by Friday, a strike or lockout becomes legal.
A nationwide strike could cost the U.S. economy $2 billion per day, according to an industry report released last week. Those economic damages will be felt at retail stores and via loss of jobs, widespread plant shutdowns, higher cost for goods and a disruption to hundreds of thousands of daily commuter and Amtrak trips.
The report estimated a single container or trailer on a railcar can contain 2,000 UPS packages, tens of thousands of bananas or hundreds of flat-screen TVs. Any rail shutdown would significantly hinder the delivery of these items and more.
Michelle Polk, a spokesperson for UPS, said it is continuing to work on a contingency plan but a strike could be severely damaging.
“Any disruptions will create uncertainty in supply chains and the U.S. economy,” Polk said. “We encourage an immediate resolution, beneficial to all parties, so that our country avoids any additional negative economic impacts and ensures business continuity.”
