CHICAGO — More than 30 people were injured, and more than 20 were hospitalized, following a crash involving a Chicago Transit Authority train today (Thurday, Nov. 16), according to updated information from the Chicago Fire Department.
The latest information, as reported by WMAQ-TV, is that at least 38 people were injured, with 23 transported to hospitals. Of those, at least two were critically injured; none of the injuries were reported to be life-threatening. Four of the injured were reported to be children. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the operator of the CTA train was among the most critically injured.
WLS-TV reports that the collision occurred at 10:39 a.m. in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side, near the Howard Street station on the Red and Yellow lines. A Yellow Line train reportedly hit maintenance equipment — described as a snowplow — in the Howard railyard; images show the front of a railcar significantly caved in from the impact. A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said the train and plow were moving in the same direction, but the train, moving about 30 mph, rear-ended the plow, going about 10 mph, according to the Sun-Times.
Yellow and Purple line CTA service has been suspended.
In an earlier report, WMAQ-TV indicated that 15 people assessed for injuries had refused transport to hospitals.
WMAQ also reports that Evanston firefighters had to rescue passengers from a Purple Line train stranded between stations when power was cut as a result of the accident involving the Yellow Line train.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it was sending personnel to investigate the incident.
— Updated at 1:35 p.m. CST with new injury figures; updated at 6 p.m. with additional information.
I believe that the CTA uses Automatic Train Stop, but I seem to recall that the old Skokie Swift line was different than the rest of the system, at least at one point in time. If ATS was in use, it obviously did not work for this set of events.
It could have been a much worse accident.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
CTA’s Yellow Line was previously named the Skokie Swift. It runs from Howard St to Dempster connecting at Howard with CTA’s L coming North from the Subway in Downtown Chicago.
The line itself is the former North Shore Line interurban to Milwaukee. CTA acquired it as far as the Dempster St. when CNS&M abandoned service in 1963. CTA started service in 1964.
Charles:
Great comment it made my day!
Ed Burns
Front end of the car was “slightly caved in”! Quite an understatement.
Ed Burns
Retired Class 1
Ed – Come out of retirement to fix this. Stop by Autozone to buy a half-gallon can of Bondo.
“Significantly caved in” the article says. I wonder if the editor made a correction after your comment?
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Should have it figured out shortly as a lot of people standing around with their hands in their pockets.
In the US Army one of our guys came up with a fake command, “Mill About, Mill.” It appears the army of people in CTA Hi-Viz vests is doing just that.
A saddening and thought-provoking rail system accident in the railroad capital of America. Speedy recovery to all injured!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Most MOW equipment is designed not to shunt the rails, since it is usually too light to do so reliably. So all safety prevention is dispatcher controlled to lock out any track with MOW from regular train use. Apparently, that did not happen.
“IF” the train hit maintenance equipment in the rail yard then the train was at a location that was not part if the train’s route. Either split a switch or was diverted into the yard???
Someone who knows the operation can tell us. The track the train was on apparently was on a track that passes under the loop track.. Is that the track that regular revenue train pass through this yard?
https://news.yahoo.com/cta-train-crash-leaves-least-182531994.html
The CTA ‘Yellow Line’ train appears to be inbound to the Howard Street Station (inbound from Skokie) and from the picture it looks like it is (partly) under the SB Howard Red Line loop track.
I wonder why the CTA maintenance equipment was on the same track as the inbound CTA Yellow Line train? Wouldn’t the automatic signaling/train stop detect the maintenance equipment on this active track and stop the Yellow Line train before the collision? I guess the NTSB accident investigation will sort all of this out …..