The operator of a Yellow Line train hit the brakes in the moments before the train struck a snow plow 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 designed to reduce sliding by the train’s wheels while braking activated, according to the report, issued Tuesday. Still, the train failed to stop, slamming into the snowplow and injuring more than a dozen people.
CTA estimated the crash caused about $8.7 million in damages to equipment, the report shows.
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 why the train failed to stop, but the initial report sheds more light on questions that have lingered in the weeks since the crash about what went wrong and whether the incident could have been prevented.
The report comes nearly a month after the crash, when a Yellow Line train approaching the Howard station, near the border of Chicago and Evanston, 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Yellow Line that runs from Rogers Park to Skokie, also known as the Skokie Swift, has remained closed and service has been replaced by free shuttle buses, as federal regulators investigated and the CTA reviewed operations on the line.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.
At least eight lawsuits have been filed against the CTA related to the crash, public records show.
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.
In the days after the crash, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said a “design problem” caused the crash, that there was residue on the tracks and that the train’s wheels slipped as the operator tried to brake. The train needed a longer braking distance, she said.
The short preliminary report does not specify why the train failed to stop in the intended distance. The signal system was designed to stop the train within 1,780 feet, but the train failed to stop within about 2,150 feet, the report notes.
Thirty passengers and an operator were aboard the Yellow Line train, made up of two, 9-year-old 5000-series railcars, 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 snow plow. The equipment was about 2,150 feet ahead of the train.
The operator “immediately” tried to brake, NTSB investigators said, then saw the snow plow and applied the emergency brakes. The train slowed to about 27 miles per hour before slamming into the snowplow.
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 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.
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.
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 about train control systems nor indicate whether it played a role in the crash. While the investigation continues, it is unclear whether a new control system would have made a difference.
This is a developing story.
sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com
