CHICAGO — Downed power lines have halted service for South Shore and Metra Electric District routes through Friday, part of the continuing fallout from the record cold weather in the Upper Midwest.
South Shore service was halted after an inbound Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District test train that left Michigan City, Ind., at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday unexpectedly encountered snapped overhead catenary as it approached Torrence Avenue in Chicago. General Manager Mike Nolan told the Chicago Tribune that the train’s lead pantograph became tangled in the wires. Plans are to restore service Friday morning, but even then, buses will run between Michigan City and South Bend, Ind., according to Nolan, “because wires that snapped Wednesday were brand new and the wires out there are older.”
According to a service advisory on the South Shore website, at least two trains will be cancelled on Friday.
Downed wires Wednesday on Metra’s Chicago-University Park electric line snarled morning commutes and also resulted in two days of cancelled service on that route, which is also used by South Shore trains.
Metra’s diesel-operated lines all operated with delays on reduced schedules, but with numerous businesses closed, ridership was light on Wednesday. Metra’s current severe-weather operating plans are available here.
Downed wires seems like a valid reason to stop service, but Amtrak uses diesels. What’s their excuse?
Charles, for Chicago and south of there it is though, and most of these articles specifically talk about the Chicago area…-50F wind chill is nothing to laugh at, which is why there are people dead from this weather.
Dennis, I live in Wisconsin. This isn’t a record cold here, nothing close, neither the temperature nor the duration of the cold snap..
Sorry ’bout Fargo.
Haven’t heard from my friend near you in NW Minnesota for a couple of days. Last I heard, maybe around Tuesday it was business as usual in the coldest county in the Lower 48.
Mr. Landey, not sure how good your memory is, but in the Fargo area we ARE breaking records after 130 years of observations. This is as bad as anything I have experienced and I seem to have left middle age in the rear view mirror some time back.
Oh, the stories I could tell as seen from behind the windshield the last two days down here.
Record cold? Anyone of middle age in the Midwest can recall colder.