Ombre West usually takes the Yellow Line as part of her commute to Oakton Community College in Skokie. But the train line has been shut down since a crash on the tracks sent nearly two dozen people to hospitals, leaving West and other commuters to rely on replacement shuttle buses or alternate ways of getting around.
West, 20, estimated the shuttles have added an hour to her trip from her home in Evanston to school in the neighboring suburb.
More than two weeks after the mid-November crash on the tracks, the three-stop line that runs from Rogers Park to Skokie, also known as the Skokie Swift, remains closed as federal regulators investigate CTA equipment design and outside conditions, and the CTA reviews operations on the line.
The closure has frustrated commutes for riders trying to get to their homes, work and school, who instead must rely on the free shuttle buses the CTA is running to replace train service, or find other transportation. And it has left questions for riders and those who were injured about why the train failed to stop before slamming into a snowplow on the tracks, and whether the crash could have been prevented.
On Nov. 16, a Yellow Line train approaching the Howard station, near the border of Chicago and Evanston, rear-ended a “snow-fighter” track-plowing train that was on the tracks for scheduled training. Twenty-three people were taken to hospitals after the crash, three of them in serious or critical condition. Four of the people injured were children.
It is the latest challenge for CTA President Dorval Carter, who has been in the hot seat as riders complained in recent years about unreliable service, conditions on trains and buses and concerns about personal safety.
The investigation is continuing, but so far NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy has said a “design problem” caused the crash, that there was residue on the tracks and that the train’s wheels slipped as the operator tried to brake. The train needed a longer braking distance, she said. The system was designed to stop the train within 1,780 feet, but the train needed 2,745 feet to stop, she said.
The NTSB said it is investigating signal operating design, the vehicle’s braking and whether any environmental conditions contributed, an agency spokeswoman said in a statement. They will also focus on any changes needed “in terms of the current design of the CTA Yellow Line.”
The rail cars involved in the crash were 5000-series models, which have been used by the CTA on several lines since 2009. The CTA has 714 of the 5000-series cars, making it the agency’s most common model of railcar.
The CTA is reviewing “all aspects” of the Yellow Line, the agency said in a statement this week. The review includes signals, tracks and equipment, and the agency is also testing trains on the line. Service will resume once the review is complete, the agency said.
On a recent afternoon, out-of-service trains could be seen running along the tracks. A free shuttle bus whizzed past a Yellow Line stop, leaving riders to wait for the next bus. Several regular riders said it was the first time they’d seen a shuttle miss their stop.
Hannah Jacobson, 23, takes the train roughly three days a week between her home in Rogers Park and work at a biotechnology company in Skokie. Not knowing what time the shuttles will arrive is frustrating, as is a longer commute home, she said.
“It’s just tiring, frustrating,” she said. “A little less time to go home and be home.”
The first time West, the Oakton student, had to take the shuttle buses to class she was an hour late because she didn’t know train service had been suspended, she said. Now she knows she must wake up an hour earlier to make it to class on time. She wonders when the train line will reopen.
Bill O’Malley commutes from Uptown to a school he works at in Skokie. After he figured out that the free shuttle buses were available, his morning commute hasn’t been too bad because there is rarely road traffic when he is commuting in. But the buses have added a few minutes onto his afternoon commute.
The Yellow Line closure is just one more challenge on top of a year of CTA challenges he’s faced, he said. This year, conditions on trains and service have gotten noticeably worse, he said.
“This year has been the worst year I’ve experienced in probably the last seven or eight,” he said.
Since the crash, passengers on the train have filed at least seven lawsuits against the CTA. One is a lawsuit brought by a family of which five members were riding in the first car of the train, including two toddlers.
Stephen and Susan Helmer; their daughter, Skokie resident Margaret Costello; and Costello’s twin children, who are almost 2, went to the emergency room after the crash, their attorneys, Richard Pullano and Matt Siporin said.
Siporin said his clients are looking for answers about how the crash occurred.
“There’s no question that there had to be multiple layers of failure in order for this piece of equipment to be on the tracks with this commuter train,” Pullano said.
The CTA declined to comment on pending litigation.
The Yellow Line crash came nine years after a Blue Line train pulling into the station at O’Hare International Airport crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks and landed on top of an escalator after the rookie operator dozed off. The crash injured more than 30 people and caused roughly $11 million in damages, and led to operational changes at the CTA, including lowering the speed limit for trains approaching the O’Hare platform.
Among the NTSB’s recommendations after the Blue Line crash was that the CTA install a more robust type of train control system, that CTA estimates will cost nearly $2.5 billion. The more robust control system is similar in some ways to a variety called Positive Train Control that federal authorities have mandated for Metra and other railroads.
The Federal Transit Administration has not mandated public transit systems adopt the more robust type of train control system. In a 2022 study of the system the agency concluded it “can reduce risks for rail transit agencies” and further research was needed into the best ways to use the system and potential effects on transit agencies.
While the investigation into the cause of the Yellow Line crash continues, it is unclear whether a new control system would have made a difference.
A system like Positive Train Control might have prevented the Yellow Line crash, but it might not be a cost-effective choice for the CTA, said Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.
Retrofitting an old system can be expensive, difficult and lead to service disruptions, he said. It could come at the expense of replacing bridges, improving bus stops, upgrading stations or other measures to improve rider safety, he said.
“It’s a challenge for older systems like the CTA to have hundreds of older cars and legacy infrastructure that’s in some cases crumbling,” he said.
The type of system the CTA currently uses has the ability to automatically detect trains on the same track and restrict trains’ movement, including capping speeds and automatically stopping a train if an operator violates a signal, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said in a statement.
The more robust system can provide more precise information about where a train is on the tracks, he said. But both systems rely information about how trains act under normal conditions and “other unforeseen factors can intervene and affect these protections,” he said.
The CTA has laid the groundwork to potentially move toward a more advanced system by upgrading some of its signals and rail cars, he said.
“CTA has made significant strides to upgrade and improve its signal systems and railcar capabilities, building the foundation for an even more modern system,” he said.
sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com
