No time like the last minute to discuss fares!
CTA base fare is $2.25 . You can purchase a Transit Card for this amount, since we technically only have one entry into the system. If you will be entering the system any more times, adjust accordingly. If you plan to enter the system 3 or more times, a DayPass for $5.75 on your Transit Card would be a better value.
I am thinking to save time, somebody could put say $9 on one Transit Card, and then 4 people could enter. This would save some time, when our group arrives at the cramped Quincy station.
As for the METRA trip, the one way adult fare between Chicago's Ogilvie Transportation Center and Elburn is $6.50 each way. Your ticket should read Zone I (the letter I). (Reduced fare for seniors is $3.25 each way.) It would therefore be to your advantage to purchase the $7 Weekend Pass, which would reduce the cost of your round trip from $13 to $7. Looking at it another way, your return trip would end up costing you just 50 cents!
Although our attention has shifted to the Capitol Limited instead of the Cardinal, our departure from Chicago is not that much later. So we will still hold to the same priorities. City of New Orleans on time or early, we do CTA, lunch, then METRA. City of New Orleans a little late, we have longer lunch, then METRA. City of New Orleans very late, it's best to just have lunch since we might miss the last departure of the METRA train to Elburn that would safely put us back in Chicago well before some of us have to board our outbound trains.
Edited by KevinKorell, 16 July 2011 - 01:57 PM.