(The following story by Richard Wronski appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on October 13.)
CHICAGO — Metra officials on Friday announced a shake-up in track inspection procedures, acknowledging its inspectors failed to detect a defect that caused the derailment of two Metra Electric trains at the same station this month.
Metra is adopting “more stringent oversight” of its inspection work as a result of the Oct. 2 derailments at its South Shore station at 71st Street and South Shore Drive, said Bill Tupper, director of operations. No one was hurt when the two rush-hour Metra Electric trains derailed on separate tracks about an hour and a half apart. Metra chalked up the incidents to “wear and tear” on the tracks.
The derailments were blamed on a track misalignment that wasn’t spotted by a Metra inspector, Tupper said. The derailments occurred on a road-level grade crossing at the “sharpest curve” on the Metra Electric line, he said.
Because of the sharp curve and high traffic volume at that location, the inspector should have checked more closely for problems, Tupper said.
In November, Metra will use a “track geometry car,” a specially outfitted train car with high-tech equipment, to inspect the system’s rails, Tupper said. The equipment can more accurately check the alignment of the tracks than a visual inspection and can detect defects within the rails.
The last time a similar inspection took place was three years ago, Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said. Previously, Metra had said the last high-tech inspection took place in 2005.
Metra was investigating whether the inspector should be reprimanded for overlooking the misalignment, Pardonnet said.
Executive Director Phil Pagano said the derailments did not result from the agency’s diversion of capital improvement funds for operating expenses due to budget shortfalls.
“This was an isolated incident and I don’t want to put it in that context,” Pagano said. “However … without capital funding, on-time performance will be reduced; there will be speed reductions placed on our equipment. [Diverting capital funds] doesn’t have an impact [on] derailments. We will stop running trains if that’s the case.”