(The following article by Jason Meisner and Dan P. Blake was posted on the Chciago Tribune website on March 8.)
CHICAGO — Metra was forced to cancel a Southwest Service train scheduled to head into Chicago this morning after seven people suffered minor injuries when a freight train engine backed into a passenger train just south of downtown.
Metra is expecting all other trains to have normal service during the morning rush hour, according to a statement on its Web site. But the transit agency had to cancel Southwest Service train No. 808, scheduled to depart Orland Park at 6:49 a.m. and arrive at Chicago’s Union Station at 7:55 a.m., the statement said.
The collision occurred about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday in the 1800 block of South Canal Street, shortly after Metra Southwest Service train No. 839 left Union Station.
A Union Pacific engineer was backing a tandem engine through the switching yard when his engine struck the front of the Metra train, which was carrying about 55 passengers, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.
“The impact derailed the freight engine and the front passenger car of the Metra train,” but neither car tipped over,” Langford said. The Metra train was standing on the tracks at the time of the collision, he said.
An Emergency Medical Service Plan 1 was called for the accident, bringing five ambulances to the scene, Langford said.
The freight engineer and six Metra passengers were taken to area hospitals with minor bumps and bruises, Langford said. Firefighters and police were on hand to help the remaining passengers off the train.
Metra was arranging for CTA buses to shuttle stranded passengers to their destinations, Langford said.
After the collision Southwest Service train No. 841, which had been scheduled to depart Union Station at 11:40 p.m., instead departed from the Wrightwood station on the city’s Southwest Side.