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Originally Posted by emathias
Does UP-North share tracks with very much freight? From a functional standpoint it seems like a good candidate for electric, too.
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Yes, north of Lake Bluff. This suggests a French-style approach in which electrification might only extend to Lake Forest, where the local trains would terminate, and a small number of diesel or dual-mode trains would go all the way to Kenosha. Metro-North also does this, so it's not just a European thing.
That said, Union Pacific might oppose electrification.
The best candidates for electrification are the lines that Metra already owns. The Milwaukee District lines see substantial freight traffic from CP, so that poses a problem. That leaves Southwest Service, which is technically owned by NS but is used and maintained exclusively by Metra, except for a short stretch on the South Side that NS uses for yard access.