"Metra executive director Phil Pagano has been placed on paid administration leave as the agency looks into allegations of improper conduct."

Looks like someone put a fork in the Metra Union Pacific west line improvement project co-lead and longtime Metra executive director Phil Pagano, gotta love these Metra and UP folks. Wonder if Sir Topham Hatt was ever relieved of his duties in the wake of allegations of possible misconduct? Bully.

Metra chief Phil Pagano on leave as compensation is probed

This message has been edited. Last edited by: shrugged,

Mr. Opposing View: Please review the definition of patronizing: "Offensively condescending". While you're at the dictionary, check out Obtuse: "lacking in insight or discernment".

No, she says patiently, I'm NOT proposing that only one train be on the track at any one time. That would be impractical and inefficient.

I AM proposing that the railroad, when it schedules its trains, not park them for long periods of time in ANY urbanized area.

Instead, I'm suggesting that they schedule them in such a manner that any unavoidable stoppages take place FAR, FAR west of here, in rural areas where there are no nearby residences.

To explain it as simply as I know how, if, for example, the railroad knows that Train #1 will leave Proviso Yard at 9:00 PM, it should schedule the next train so that it arrives at 9:05 PM or thereabouts.

Presently, they are accomplishing this by parking Train #2 in Glen Ellyn. Instead, I would prefer that they park it way out in the country, say, near (but NOT in!) Dekalb.

Now, this would pose a very complex scheduling challenge. It takes, let's say, 30 minutes for the train to travel from Glen Ellyn to Proviso. If the railroad took my suggestion, it might take, say, 90 minutes for the nonstop trip from Dekalb to Proviso. So this would mean, in the above example, that, to arrive in Proviso at 9:05, it would start up at about 7:25, even before #1 left the yard.

Now, I will even concede that in life sometimes unexpected things occur. So if, after Train #2 left the rural staging area, Train #1 broke down and there was no other spot in Proviso to park #2, then, unfortunately, it would have to park in GE. But the frequency of such events should be way less.

I can't figure out how to make it simpler.

And no one should ever sit on a plane waiting to take off for more than say, 15 minutes.
Geez. It's not at all simple.

GE Mom, you go girl! Nice putdown of OV. He sure carries a load, doesn't he?

As to who was here first? Easy, the C&NW. It was the UP and their staging policies which came second. This is a BS argument anyway, and yes, any change in circumstances needs to be negotiated. UP has no right to make changes that negatively impact the area with impunity.

As for O'Hare, there were houses in Bensenville before airplanes were invented. Think that gives homeowners in Bensenville any solace?

Having grown up in the area being torn down in Bensenville, I would man the bulldozers. The area east of York Road became a slum. That wasn't O'Hare's fault.

Eminent domain. Private property seized with compensation for the greater good of society. Unfortunate for those who don't want to sell but we really can't have everyone else in the nation held hostage to a private property. O'hare without fully functioning east-west runways was holding up traffic nationwide.

And don't believe for a minute that Bensenville and other nearby communities were not in favor of the expansion. How we forget history- Midway was Chicago's main airport at one-time- O'hare built bigger and better and all the businesses needing air freight moved there leaving the midway area destitute. If O'hares expansion hadn't gone through and they built bigger and better in Peotone. Well we'd have gotten a new place for pand handlers to wash car windows (Bensenville).

The tax revenue Bensenville and elk grove etc. get from O'hare related business is astounding. The fact a certain mayor and a lot of law firms and consultants profited for years fighting a battle with millions of $ in tax money that was gladly lost before it started really irks me.

Speaking of O'Hare, I read recently where it is now The World's 4th Busiest Airport.

For years, O'Hare raced nip and tuck against Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson for title of World's Busiest Airport.

No longer. Atlanta is now clearly #1, followed by London's Heathrow and - Are you ready? - Beijing's Capital International Airport.

"We're Number Four! We're Number Four!"

And slipping.

Blame it on the economic downturn and weak domestic air travel market. Blame it on high fuel prices. Heck, blame it on the increasing use of smaller, regional jets and outsourcing to regional carriers by the big airlines.Whatever you want to blame it on, it is happening.

Will all of the expansion be able to pay for itself? Perhaps, if things "get back to normal". But what is "normal" looking into the upcoming decade? I certainly can't predict.

Who knows, O'Hare might be vying for 7th or 8th place in a few years.

Could be. Still will be the nations hub for the foreseeable future though.

At least until we embrace wireless passenger jets. Read an interesting article that the nation is slowly moving towards this- you type into your whatever phone/pad/notebook/laptop/ where you are and where you want to go and all the same people destinations are routed into a non-stop nearby plane- could be big or small. Computer flies the plane- no pilot (like the space shuttle). Tells you to be there at such and such time and you're off avoiding the hub delays.

Sounds a little like "jonny cab". but its coming. The Feds wanted to try this with small rail passenger cars out of Schaumburg. Everyone with the same destination gets into one small car and goes non-stop.

Some day, as rising gas prices will eventually require good mass transportation I think.

If a freight could make it to Dekalb without interrupting a commuter train, then there is no need for staging. Repeating now, if you can get a train to not stop and wait while another train passes and get it to Dekalb, there is no need for then stop in Dekalb. Try to schedule 120 trains a day on this line without stopping one of them. They are quite long and take up space. Try to get to Oakbrook in your car from GE and not stop. Do you not stage at a stop sign or a light, are you not adding addition polution and sound while you are "staging" at said light? There is no difference really other than a train is pulling 20-100 cars or so and only has one route, it can't go down side streets etc... 3 tracks, 120 trains, 44 miles, 24 hours in a day. Get them moved without stopping one of them.

Now, maybe we're moving a bit toward common ground. My understanding of 'staging' is that it refers to the practice of parking trains for MANY hours at a time due to lack of space in Proviso yard. (Nobody would be upset about brief stops necessitated by traffic.)

When these loud trains are parked behind houses in Glen Ellyn all night, this causes the residents of those homes to lose sleep due to noise, and be assaulted by noxious fumes. AND -- the practice of staging is in fact relatively recent and not an intrinsic part of railroad operations.

So, again, I wish someone would explain why the railroad chooses to park their trains in GE and not in a rural area where it wouldn't bother anyone.

Stop the merry go round. I think I'm going to throw up.

Just to add to Shrugged's list

Daily Herald May 8, 2004

quote:

But Union Pacific officials say a series of improvements will either pull train traffic off the main line through DuPage County or at least get it moving faster.

Residents say fixes can't come fast enough.
...........

It should get better, and quieter, later this year, said UP spokesman Mark Davis.

Already under way are gate improvements at the Proviso rail yard in Melrose Park to get trains and trucks in faster. Officials also have purchased land just east of the yard to create a 500-car staging area that reduce the needs for trains to sit on the tracks.

quote:

"Metra executive director Phil Pagano has been placed on paid administration leave as the agency looks into allegations of improper conduct."

Little follow-up to my post of 7 days ago, Pagano is now on permanent leave.

Metra boss killed by train hours before misconduct meeting

Unbelievable!

Pagano took $475,000 in unauthorized vacation payments

In one week the "may involve unapproved advances of more than $50,000 in vacation pay" has turned into "took $475,000 in unauthorized vacation payments beginning in 1999."