I have used the NCS once, only from O'Hare up north into the Chicagoland suburbs. The overall setup is one of the most ridiculous ones in all my years of travelling. There are only 6 trains a day from Monday through Friday (in accordance with the 9-5 commuters), with extremely large gaps between them. The station is not even walkable from the terminals, as you have to take an ATS train (assuming it works) to the Multimodal Facility, where the rental cars are located. From there, you follow an outdoor path (which could be in atrocious Chicago weather, so beware) behind the rental car garage (watch for the cars while you're at it, as those speedy drivers are pretty ruthless) on your way to a mostly deserted station. It's as if no one ever thought about the general feeling of safety, which already is lacking in Chicago, when designing this station.

The fact that they need a major temporary event to even provide the most basic level of connectivity just shows the sheer lack of imagination with public transport in the US. I obviously get the fact that the freight companies control much of the tracks, and aren't always willing to grant additional share to Metra. But that feels more like a recycled excuse as time goes on.

I definitely won't be going on the CTA anytime soon (unless I want to get mugged, which I don't), and the Metra is going to be the same system throughout with little convenience. Shameful!