CHICAGO — Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have ratified a new seven-year agreement with Metra’s operating company, the Northern Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp.

The agreement ratified on June 19 covers about 250 BLET members and will provide compounded general wage increases of 35.42% over the life of the deal running through Dec. 31, 2032. The agreement was ratified by an 84% majority.

“Collectively,” BLET National Vice President Kevin Sexton said in a statement, “the agreement represents a long-term framework designed to stabilize operations, modernize compensation and scheduling structures, preserve employee protections, and create a unified operating agreement governing locomotive engineers throughout the NIRCRC system.”

Metra and the BLET had announced the tentative agreement earlier this month [see “BLET, Metra reach tentative deal …,” Trains.com, June 2, 2026]. At that time, it was described as a six-year deal.

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