(The following report appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on June 8.)
CHICAGO — Rail commuters to the southwest suburbs faced a long detour and delays of up to an hour heading home this afternoon after a derailment on Chicago’s South Side closed tracks used by Metra’s Southwest Service line.
To get around the accident site, trains to Orland Park that leave Union Station in downtown Chicago at 4:30, 4:57 and 5:30 p.m. instead detoured onto the Metra Burlington Northern Santa Fe line, Metra spokesman Audrey Renteria said. Those trains were delayed up to an hour and were expected to rejoin their normal route on the South Side.
Riders of Southwest Service trains scheduled to depart Union Station at 6:45 and 8:30 p.m. instead will be directed to buses at the southeast corner of Clinton Street and Jackson Boulevard, Renteria said.
The buses will stop at the Wrightwood station, at Kedzie Avenue and 79th Street on the city’s Southwest Side, then proceed to the Ashburn station at Central Park Avenue and 83rd Street, also in the city, the spokeswoman said.
At Ashburn, trains will be waiting to carry the riders to the suburbs, Renteria said. There will be no inbound trains on the Southwest Service this afternoon or evening.
Commuters also can take the Pace Route 835 bus, which starts in the Loop, parallels the Southwest Service and makes many of the same stops as the train, Renteria said. More information and updates can be viewed at Metra’s Web site.
The trouble began about 12:30 p.m. when an Amtrak train heading inbound to Chicago from Indianapolis derailed at 42nd Street, just west of the Dan Ryan Expressway, on the Southwest Service line. No injuries were reported.
Train No. 317, the Hoosier State, had just arrived in the city and was heading north toward Union Station when its locomotive and first passenger coach derailed. Both cars remained upright, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
“It just kind of felt like the train was running over gravel, and then it just started shaking and tipped over,” passenger John Sturm told CLTV. Another passenger, Rick Pyzna, said, “We hit a bump, and the engine tipped, and the passenger car tipped with it.”
“The rail looked like it cracked, causing the train to derail,” said Matt Thomas of the Chicago Fire Department. Asked if today’s hot weather could have been a factor, Thomas said, “I couldn’t say. That has to come from the Norfolk rail people, who have to do an investigation on the tracks.” The Norfolk Southern railroad owns the tracks.
About 40 passengers were taken off the train and transferred to another, inbound train that was following it, CLTV reported. The Chicago Fire Department remained at the scene as railroad personnel worked to put the train back on the tracks.
The incident immediately forced the cancellation of two afternoon trains of Metra’s Southwest Service. Buses substituted for trains that were to have left Union Station at 1:45 p.m. and 3 p.m., a Metra spokesman said.