Due to declining on-site ticket sales at the Glencoe Station on the UP North Line, Metra today announced that Union Pacific Railroad will staff the station with a ticket agent only on select dates until Oct. 11, when the ticket office will close permanently.
The ticket office will be open Aug. 30 and 31, Sept. 4, 27 and 28 and Oct. 1, 2 and 11.
Ticket sales have declined at many Metra stations as passengers have switched to mobile purchasing. Although the ticket office is closing, passengers will continue to have access to the station facilities. The ticket agent position is being eliminated through attrition.
The station only sold 842 tickets during July, the lowest amount of any outlying station on the three lines owned and operated by Union Pacific. The station serves about 700 customers a day.
On days when the ticket office is closed, and after Oct. 11, customers boarding in Glencoe can use cash to purchase a One-Way Ticket on board from a conductor at no extra cost. In addition, customers can purchase tickets from an agent or vending machine at all five downtown stations or through the free Ventra App, available in the App Store and Google Play. About 43 percent of Metra customers are now buying tickets via the app.
On-site ticket sales were previously eliminated at the Clarendon Hills, Riverside, Brookfield and Stone Avenue stations on the BNSF Line; the Mokena, 111th Street/Morgan Park, 91st, 95th and 99th Street stations on the Rock Island Line; the Bensenville Station on the Milwaukee District West Line; the 57th Street Station on the Metra Electric Line; the Hubbard Woods, Kenilworth and Lake Bluff stations on the UP North Line; the Harvard Station on the UP Northwest Line; and the Oak Park Station on the UP West Line. All of the ticket agent positions were eliminated through attrition.