The operator of a CTA Yellow Line train hit the brakes in the moments before the railcars struck a snowplow on the tracks in mid-November, a preliminary report issued by federal investigators shows.
The operator also tried to use the train’s emergency brakes. A system that is designed to reduce sliding by the train’s wheels while braking had activated, according to the report, issued Tuesday. Still, the train failed to stop, slamming into the snowplow and injuring more than a dozen people.
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The CTA estimated the crash caused about $8.7 million in damages to equipment, the report says.
The report, from the National Transportation Safety Board, provides more details about the moments that led up to the Nov. 16 crash. The NTSB is continuing to investigate the crash, but the initial report sheds more light on questions that have lingered in the weeks since the collision about what went wrong and whether it could have been prevented.
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The Yellow Line train was approaching the Howard station, near the border of Chicago and Evanston, when it rear-ended a “snow-fighter” track-plowing train that was on the tracks for scheduled training. Sixteen people were taken to hospitals after the crash, three of them critically injured, according to the report. Initial reports from first responders had indicated 23 people were taken to hospitals.
Since the crash, the three-stop Yellow Line that runs from Rogers Park to Skokie, also known as the Skokie Swift, has remained closed and service has been replaced by free shuttle buses, as federal regulators investigated and the CTA reviewed operations on the line. The CTA has not said when the line could reopen.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a press briefing Tuesday it was up to the CTA to decide when to reopen the line and ensure it is safe. If the NTSB receives requested information from the CTA, investigators with the federal agency intend to return next week to Chicago to meet with the railcar manufacturer and the Chicago transit agency and conduct further testing, she said.
Homendy has said the CTA’s signal system was old and if it were designed today it would have to allow for a longer stopping distance for trains, though she said investigators were still determining whether that caused the crash. The CTA configured the system to stop trains in 1,780 feet or less, while if it were built today the system would have been designed to stop trains within 2,745 feet.
The system first warned the Yellow Line operator to stop when the train was about 2,150 feet from the snowplow, the six-paragraph preliminary report notes.
“We’re going to look at, was stopping distance something that CTA re-evaluated over time?” Homendy said. “Did they look at their braking algorithms? Did they look at their signal configuration over time? And testing.”
Homendy has also said there was residue on the tracks and that the train’s wheels slipped as the operator tried to brake.
The crash and line closure are the latest challenge for CTA President Dorval Carter, who has been in the hot seat as riders complained in recent years about unreliable service, conditions on trains and buses and concerns about personal safety.
At least eight lawsuits have been filed against the CTA related to the crash, public records show.
The CTA said it would not comment on pending litigation. In a statement, agency officials said they were continuing to work with the NTSB.
“The CTA is currently engaged in an extremely thorough review of all aspects of the Yellow Line mentioned in the NTSB preliminary report, from signals to tracks to equipment, as well as testing trains to ensure safe operation,” they said. “These activities require time to perform, and once this review is complete, CTA will determine a plan to reopen.”
Thirty passengers and an operator were aboard the Yellow Line train, made up of two 5000-series railcars built in 2014, according to the report. That model of railcar is the agency’s most common.
The operator knew the snowplow would be on the tracks for training, but didn’t know exactly where, federal investigators wrote.
It was a clear day with temperatures in the 60s. The snow removal machine, with six CTA employees on board, stopped 370 feet north of a red signal, which indicates equipment and trains must stop. The Yellow Line train was heading south at about 54 miles per hour, which is below the maximum 55 miles per hour speed set by the CTA, when the signal system alerted the operator to stop because of the snowplow.
The operator “immediately” tried to brake, NTSB investigators said, then saw the snowplow and applied the emergency brakes. The train slowed to about 27 miles per hour before slamming into the snowplow.
Homendy said the operator appeared to be engaged, in control and following CTA protocol leading up to the crash. He told investigators he had been having trouble stopping the train, and event recorder data confirmed the system intended to prevent wheels from slipping was engaged, confirming his experience, she said.
“We don’t believe that the operator, at this time, was in any way at fault,” she said.
Two of the people initially listed in critical condition after the crash were CTA employees, according to a copy of a police report. Officers arriving on the scene saw one CTA employee who had seemingly been ejected from the snowplow and trapped underneath the equipment.
The NTSB is continuing to investigate. The agency will focus on the CTA’s signal system, the design and braking of the railcars involved in the crash, and examining “organic material” on the rails. Such material can include contaminants like leaf debris that affect the wheels during braking, the report said.
The NTSB will also look at a prior recommendation for the CTA to install a more robust type of train signal system, Homendy said.
The CTA uses a train control system known as automatic train control that enforces speed limits, and can prevent trains from moving through signals or locations where they are required to stop, according to the NTSB report.
After a 2014 crash in which a Blue Line train pulling into the station at O’Hare International Airport crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks and landed on top of an escalator, the NTSB recommended the CTA install a more robust type of train control system. Among the changes included with the more robust type of control is stopping a train before it passes a signal, while CTA’s current system kicks in once a train passes a signal, Homendy said.
The Federal Transit Administration has not mandated that public transit systems adopt the more robust type of train control system, and the CTA has estimated it would cost nearly $2.5 billion. In a 2022 study of the system the agency concluded it “can reduce risks for rail transit agencies” and further research was needed into the best ways to use the system and potential effects on transit agencies.
“It’s a much more comprehensive safety system than automatic train control, which is why we have recommended it in the past,” Homendy said.
The more robust system can provide more precise information about where a train is on the tracks, CTA spokesman Brian Steele has previously said. But both the more robust and current systems rely on information about how trains act under normal conditions and “other unforeseen factors can intervene and affect these protections,” he has said.
The preliminary NTSB report into the Yellow Line crash did not make any recommendations nor indicate whether the train control system played a role in the crash. The investigation into the crash is continuing.
But in a Nov. 30 memo to the NTSB, the CTA outlined other measures the agency planned to take as a result of the crash, Homendy said. That included lowering the maximum allowable speed on the Yellow Line to 35 miles per hour, and lowering the speeds in the area of the crash to 25 miles per hour.
The CTA said it was cleaning rails to remove debris and some of the organic material the NTSB was investigating. The agency also planned to modify its track maintenance program to make sure the cleaning would continue, Homendy said.
The agency outlined a plan to issue verbal commands to trains from the control center about equipment and train movement, believing it will boost safety, she said. And the CTA laid out a plan to ensure operators were aware of the changes.
sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com
Originally Published: Dec 12, 2023 at 11:16 am