CHICAGO — The CTA will reduce speeds and promises to communicate faster on the Yellow Line after one of its trains crashed into a snow removal machine last month, agency President Dorval Carter told his board Wednesday.
Sixteen people were hurt, three critically, in the Nov. 16 crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the incident. Officials initially said 23 people were hospitalized.
Carter, speaking publicly for the first time since the independent agency released its report, said CTA is fully cooperating with the investigation and has conducted its own safety review of rail lines since the crash.
Carter assured the board the train system is safe.
“We have analyzed our entire system, and there are no other locations equivalent to this section of the Yellow Line,” Carter said in prepared remarks at the monthly board meeting Wednesday. “We work quickly to confirm that no other areas of the CTA rail system have the same design features that are indicated on the Yellow Line itself.”
But the Yellow Line remains closed almost a month after the crash, and a reopening date hasn’t been announced. Carter did not offer a timeline to resume service beyond “hoping to reach a point soon” as the NTSB investigation progresses “in the coming days.”
The crash happened after a train operator was unable to stop in time following a command to do so because of equipment on the tracks ahead, according to the NTSB report. A snow removal machine was on the Yellow Line for a training exercise, according to the report.
The operator, who acted quickly and was unaware of the snow removal machine’s exact location, hit the brakes and slowed the passenger train from 54 to 27 mph when the crash occurred, according to the report. The operator was one of the victims critically injured in the crash.
The CTA tallied its equipment damages to be around $8.7 million, according to the report.
In preparation of a reopening, CTA has informed the independent watchdog of “mitigation efforts” for the Yellow Line, Carter said. At the forefront of changes: Yellow Line trains will be reduced from 55 mph to 35 mph, and to 25 mph near the Howard station around the crash site, according to a CTA press release.
Carter also said there will be greater supervision of communications about “the presence of rail equipment on tracks.”
“These are all steps the CTA will take out of an abundance of caution,” Carter said. “We thank all the affected riders for their patience and trust.”
At least four lawsuits from injured riders have been filed against the CTA for negligence, according to documents obtained by Block Club.
The NTSB is now investigating the CTA’s signal system, the performance of its train breaks and “organic material” on the rails that might have affected the stopping distance.
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