No, CTA cannot do that. If they did, CTA would have to take a bunch of expensive steps to make their stuff complaint with FRA regs. And no, the local freight r

No, CTA cannot do that. If they did, CTA would have to take a bunch of expensive steps to make their stuff complaint with FRA regs. And no, the local freight railroads aren't "choosing" to let Metra be. They pretty much have to. That was part of the agreement when the regulators allowed the railroads to drop passenger services (which they were previously legally obliged to keep). There's a process, which hasn't been put into practice for a while but is still on the books, for Amtrak to demand the right to use certain tracks (the exact scenario where this happens escapes me).