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1/4/2024
Metra over the next few weeks will change how it sells its tickets, what kind of tickets it sells and at what price.
The commuter railroad is closing its remaining ticket windows — including at all of its downtown Chicago stations — and repurposing some of the agents as customer service representatives, Metra officials said yesterday in a news release. Agents at outlying stations on the BNSF Railway Co. Line will stop selling tickets on Jan. 8 and agents on all other lines, including at the downtown stations, will stop on Feb. 1.
The changes in fare products and the new prices that take effect Feb. 1 are part of a major fare system restructuring that was approved by Metra's board in November 2023. The restructuring seeks to simplify Metra’s fare structure to appeal to new riders, Metra officials said. Fares under the new structure are set at or below pre-pandemic levels.
Under the new structure, the number of fare zones is reduced from 10 to four, with downtown stations assigned to Zone 1 and outlying stations assigned to zones 2 through 4 based on a combination of distance from downtown, service patterns and ridership characteristics on each line.