Mr. Rawles,
While traveling to work Tuesday night on the subway, the transit system got partially shut down due to a building fire next to some aboveground tracks. This caused problems and delays during the evening commute. It shows how vulnerable some systems can be to unexpected problems;
Tuesday afternoon started out normal enough but due to a fire would cause me some problems getting to work . I live on the North side of Chicago. I work part time at a downtown gourmet supermarket. I worked a afternoon-to-close shift Tuesday night that starts at 4 p.m. Normally, I can get to work from home in under 30 minutes. On Tuesday it would take a lot longer.
First of all, here is a link to a map of the Chicago Transit system so readers can understand the system layout.
I use the ‘Red’ line to get to work. This is the busiest line in the entire system, so delays on this route can really mess things up in the rest of the system quick
Things went well at first. I got on my downtown-bound train around 3:20 PM. At the Sheridan stop, the train sat at the station for a few minutes. I figured it was just a minor mechanical problem and we would be moving again soon. However, by 3:45 PM we were still at the Sheridan stop just sitting there. I phoned the job and told them that I might be a couple minutes late. Then the train conductor announces that there is a emergency up ahead and he has been told to keep to train there at the station. After a couple more minutes of standing there the conductor announces that the train can proceed to the Belmont station, but it would not be proceeding any further south and all us passengers would be transferred to shuttle buses to continue the trip south. At Belmont station, I got off the train and walked to the south end of the platform. I looked and saw vast amounts of smoke obscuring the tracks and skyline to the south.
The cause of all the smoke was a major fire in a furniture warehouse alongside the tracks, as described by The Chicago Sun Times, and by The Chicago Tribune.
At Belmont station, shuttle buses were used to move us to other stops along the the subway route. I finally got on a shuttle bus that took us to the North Avenue/Clybourn station. We were told that the subway was working normally at this station for trains going south, but I had had enough with the system by then and decided to walk the rest of the way to my job (about a mile or so) I got to work at 6PM. I wasn’t the only one late. At least one other co-worker (who also rode the system) got to the store around 6pm also.
There is never a ‘good’ time for a fire, but this one happened not only during the beginning of evening rush hour, but a Cubs Baseball game ended at roughly the same time, so add about 20-30,000 people (with a couple of them drunk) into the mix. Overall, I can not find much fault with the Chicago Transit Authority’s handling of this situation. They reacted pretty well to the hand they were dealt. My one fault I would like to point out was the lack of information the shuttle bus drivers had. Originally, the shuttle plan was to move riders from the Belmont Station to the Fullerton Station (consult the above system map). This was what the driver of my bus planned to do. But, by now some of us riders were looking up information about the fire on our web-enabled cell phones. We showed this info to the driver who decided that taking us a stop further to North Avenue/Clybourn would be smarter. Furthermore, as our shuttle bus inched south along on Halsted Street ( lots of traffic) after leaving Belmont Station, we could all smell and see the smoke from the fire.
There were no casualties (thank God) but it took 160 firefighters to put out the blaze. When my shift ended later that night, I decided to took the subway back home (some nights I walk home because it is good exercise) as the subway went past the fire site, there was still a heavy smell of smoke in the air.
Bottom line: a discarded lit cigarette caused significant problems for the major backbone of the Chicago subway system. – ChicagoDudeWhoTrades
Letter Re: Our Fragile Society: Witnessing Disruption of a Major Metropolitan Transit System
