Metra's board of directors got its ...

Metra's board of directors got its first strange chief in 22 years with the election Friday of Downers wood attorney Carole Doris.

Doris' unanimous appointment by dint of the seven-member board ends month of contentious, behind-the-scenes wrangling through the whole extent of who would replace Jeffrey Ladd, Metra's chair since its creation in 1984

Ladd retired in June amid speculation that he didn't have enough board support to maintain his job. Though largely credited with building up Metra's infrastructure and ridership, Ladd was also criticized for being an abrasive taskmaster.

onward Friday, Doris set herself up as a consensus builder whose focus would be upon funding several ambitious projects, including the suburb-to-suburb STAR Line.

Doris, the board's DuPage shire appointee, beat out suburban prepare for the table appointee Jim Dodge.

A win for Dodge would have weakened the collar counties' dominance forward the Metra board -- a antecedent set by Ladd, of McHenry shire

Doris takes athwart at a time when Metra, which promotes over 150,000 riders a day, is slated to office its best ridership numbers continually

mjthomas@suntimes.com

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