(By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune transportation reporter, August 23, 2007)
Thousands of Metra commuters were stranded aboard trains in the west and northwest suburbs tonight after power lines downed by powerful storms brought trains to a halt.
More than 4,000 passengers were stuck aboard trains on the North Central Service Line because of a downed power line on the tracks near Des Plaines, the commuter railroad reported.
Metra spokeswoman Judith Pardonnet said service was temporarily halted on five northbound North Central trains while Metra waited for Commonwealth Edison to remove the fallen power line, Pardonnet said. The utility line was blown to the ground near a track switch near Des Plaines, she said.
As of 7 p.m., North Central Service train were moving again.
Meanwhile, a downed power line on tracks near Westmont halted all outbound trains on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Line to Aurora. Three trains, each carrying about 1,000 people, were stopped near Westmont, said Pardonnet. The trains left downtown between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Late into the evening rush period, Union Pacific trains were operating more than an hour behind schedule on average, officials said. An earlier bottleneck, caused by a downed tree near the Clybourn station on the Union Pacific North Line, was cleared up. But outbound trains were further delayed by tree branches and other storm-related debris on the tracks over much of their routes, Pardonnet said.
CTA officials asked customers to use bus service instead of trains due to major delays on the rail system.
Brown Line trains were delayed starting at about 4 p.m. due to a fallen tree blocking tracks near Paulina, said CTA spokeswoman Sheila Gregory. Power was restored, but trains were moving slowly more than an hour later.
On the O’Hare branch of the Blue Line, a downed tree at California and Milwaukee forced trains to share a single track through the area, slowing operations significantly, Gregory said.
And on the CTA’s busiest corridor, on Red, Brown and Purple Line/Evanston Express trains the North Side were being manually switched through the Clark Junction, near the Belmont station, because of power problems, Gregory said.
At the Sheridan stop on the Red Line, a sign that was blown around on the platform struck a CTA employee, who was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Gregory said. An earlier report from the Chicago Fire Department that the person was blown onto the tracks was incorrect, Gregory said.