(The following article by Guy Tridgell was posted on the Chicago Daily Southtown on May 7.)
CHICAGO — A day after a derailment closed down Metra’s Rock Island District Line, bickering over who was responsible for the mess continued Friday.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Co. eventually agreed to remove the wreckage, which temporarily was stopping Metra trains from making their morning runs.
A BNSF train carrying coal toppled Thursday on CN railroad tracks near 16th Street in Chicago. The mishap forced Metra to halt service for seven hours on the Rock Island District, which carries about 16,000 passengers a day between Joliet and Chicago.
But the debris left behind prevented Metra from using trackside signals that permit trains to pass through the area without breaking speed.
Metra officials said the lack of signals forced engineers Friday morning to come to a stop before getting clearance to continue through the derailment site. The inconvenience, however, had minimal effect on the morning commute.
Before BNSF agreed to remove the damage, neither BNSF or CN believed they were responsible, Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.
“We are sort of caught in the middle of it,” Pardonnet said.
A BNSF spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.
A CN spokesman said protocol requires the damage is removed by the railroad owning the train that jumped the tracks.
“It is pretty cut and dry,” the spokesman said. “It was a BNSF train that derailed. Not ours.”
The spokesman added that it is not unusual for the leftovers from a derailment to remain along the tracks for a day or two.
The cars damaged in the derailment this week will be cut into pieces and sold as scrap metal.