CHICAGO — Even though it took four days for trains on Metra’s Electric line to resume a normal schedule Monday after a derailment knocked out power last week, railroad experts said Chicago’s only electric commuter line represents what rail travel should be in the U.S., reports the Chicago Tribune.
They point to Amtrak’s Acela trains that cruise at up to 150 m.p.h. on an electrified corridor in the Northeast and to bullet trains in Japan powered by direct current that operate even faster.
Authorities also say that similar to the trains traveling on high-speed routes, Metra Electric’s 31-mile main line between the Randolph Street station downtown and south suburban University Park runs on tracks that aren’t shared with freight trains or intercity passenger trains.
There also is no chance of a collision between a Metra Electric train and another vehicle because, unlike Metra trains powered by diesel locomotives, the main line track has no grade crossings, which do exist on the Metra Electric’s South Chicago and Blue Island branches.
The route has one of the top scores among Metra’s 11 lines and branches with a 98 percent on-time record. But that was little consolation to thousands of commuters who were forced to find other transportation last week.
On Thursday, an empty Metra Electric train being ferried to a storage yard after the morning rush derailed and knocked down a steel pillar supporting electrical and signaling equipment at 11th Place.
As full service was restored Monday, investigators still had not officially determined the cause of the accident, Metra spokesman Tom Miller said, but officials said they suspect a track failure caused the derailment.
Authorities described the accident as a rare occurrence on the line. Yet when an accident happens, it can take crews days to rebuild complicated equipment and restore operations.
The service was converted to electric operation in 1926 after the city passed an ordinance banning steam locomotives that had deposited tons of soot along Lake Michigan.