METRA Rail
Case Study
How Metra Rail took control of sign assets across 243 Stations with SignAgent
THE CLIENT
Metra Rail
Metra is the primary rail system serving the Chicago metropolitan area, operating 243 stations across 11 rail lines, and covering 488 miles of track across 6 counties. As the fourth busiest rail system in the United States, Metra provided 34,877,600 rides in 2024, averaging around 166,000 passengers per weekday. Metra's extensive network connects Chicago's downtown area, known as "The Loop," to suburban communities in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties. The system facilitates both inbound and outbound travel for commuters, reverse commuters, and tourists alike.
THE CHALLENGE
Replace 10K+ Signs across 243 Stations
For the first time in 30 years, Metra is in the process of redeveloping its sign standards (ADA drove the development of a lot of the legacy signage in the early 1990s). As a legacy railroad with stations that go back a hundred years, Metra had very limited location plans — not optimized for locating signs.
Directionality was also a key factor in the development of the current system. With all lines terminating in downtown Chicago, which has 5 downtown stations, the wayfinding nomenclature indicated whether travellers were heading to or from Chicago, but line names were not indicated (just stops, platforms, and direction of travel).
Wayfinding and signage had typically been done by architects on a project-by-project basis. Then, outside fabricators and in-house installers would collaborate on the implementation. But there was a gap in wayfinding planning specialization between the architects and the fabricators.
Metra established its own internal wayfinding and signage team in 2023 to bridge this gap and create a more consistent and legible wayfinding system, providing people with clear and concise directional information, especially at those critical points where multiple lines intersect.
The four-person team currently has thirty active projects at various stations, from rehabbing a station, to partial demolition, to completely new construction. They aim to replace all of the signs (10,000+) at 243 stations in the coming years.
THE SOLUTION
Metra is working with architectural engineering firm Michael Baker International and Entro (a wayfinding design firm and licensed SignAgent user) on this project.
The vision for working with SignAgent is to build a complete database that contains the location, specifications, and condition of all their signs at all times.
The database will integrate sign standards and as-built drawings, so that work orders can easily be generated and implemented by the fabrication partner. This comprehensive database will enable Metra to manage and maintain signs consistently on an ongoing basis and employ predictive maintenance.
Ultimately, SignAgent will be a shared database that Metra’s wayfinding team can use to effectively collaborate with architectural vendors, internal and external fabricators, and field maintenance crews.
Three tasks of the project are underway concurrently:
- Studying potential renaming of lines. Metra has legacy lines that are named after historic railways, and they’re looking at renaming them to an alphanumeric system over the next several years.
- Developing new sign standards. Metra is working with Entro to develop a new framework for how signs are named and designed, and where they are located. (The design process began in September 2024.
- Conducting station audits to understand where all of the current signage is located.
EARLY RESULTS
The team began by creating fresh location plans for the station environments in PDF format. The new location plans were then imported into SignAgent.
The team was onboarded in SignAgent Mobile to set up all the appropriate permissions. Then, in January 2025, two consultants — based in Chicago — started the on-site sign survey process, completing the survey of 10,000+ signs in around 4 months. The audits were completed in sections, phased out by typology. All relevant data was captured to enable the goal of replacing all system signage.
• All 243 stations were audited
• 10,000+ signs were catalogued in SignAgent
The joint Michael Baker/Entro team is now actively working directly with SignAgent to geolocate all existing signage and integrate with ArcGIS. All signs programmed in the future will also be geolocated.