(The following article by Jon Davis and Jake Griffin was posted on the Chicago Daily Herald website on March 3.)
CHICAGO — Thousands of Metra commuters waiting for the way to really fly found themselves mired in airport-like delays Wednesday afternoon, thanks to a railroad dispatchers’ strike in Texas.
“They held us hostage for 45 minutes,” said Jan Mackey, whose patience had obviously been tested by the time her train pulled into Naperville’s Fifth Avenue station at 5:25 p.m. instead of the scheduled 4:39 p.m.
“They never told us it was a strike, and they wouldn’t let us get off,” the Naperville resident said.
Metra officials said normal service is expected today along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Line connecting Aurora to Chicago’s Union Station.
About 25 outbound trains and 22,000 commuters were delayed up to an hour starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday when Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway dispatchers in Saginaw, Texas, walked off the job, Metra spokesman Dan Schnolis said.
The strike “was certainly a bit of a surprise,” he said. “They’re not employees of Metra. They’re BNSF employees and their dispute is with that company.”
Trains began rolling again by 4:30 p.m. after other BNSF employees stepped in to get the signals working again, but the damage to Metra’s schedule was already done. Most trains went to the nearest station during the strike. Four outbound trains – the 5:13, 5:44, 5:48 and 6:00 – were canceled.
Many people waiting in cars at the Fifth Avenue station didn’t learn about the wildcat strike until well after their husbands and wives were significantly overdue.
“There’s a strike, really?” asked Naperville resident Kara Novins. “We have to be at a kindergarten conference at 5:45. I’m going to have to go.”
She said she had no way to let her husband know she wasn’t going to wait because “he doesn’t believe in cell phones. But this might change his mind.”
Dispatchers are to railroads what air traffic controllers are to airports, Schnolis said. They control switches and signals along the line, and give engineers permission to move, he added.
“All of that is decided by the dispatcher,” Schnolis said.
Service on Metra’s other routes was not affected, he said.