A CN freight derailed around 20 cars in Buffalo Grove today on their former WC mainline. This effectively blocks CN’s busy Waukesha Sub and caused all Metra service from Antioch to Chicago to be cancelled. They are saying there is a chance that the derailment is severe enough where the line may not be open for the evening rush either and are recommending that NCS commuters consider using the MD-N this afternoon in case if the derailment is not cleared by then. This is just another addition to the awful week for Metra and Amtrak, first with the derailment at Earlville, the incident with police at Lisle and the derailment at Union Station.
Metra could have moved equipment out of Antioch connecting to the MD-N at Prairie Crossing and running equipment extras to Tower A-5 then reversing back to the NCS to serve stations south of the derailment. And/or, service could have continued at Antioch and Greyslake with the trains connecting to the MD-N at Prairie Crossing and then providing extra service to the MD-N for the extra passengers. The derailment happened at @4am and Metra did have some options. Of course the options I mentioned are dependent on crews being available and/or qualified on the MD-N. There were delays on the MD-N line this morning due to the extreme cold/getting the trains out of the yard at Fox Lake and heavy boarding due to extra passengers from the NCS.
Before anybody laughs and replies that Metra would never run their trains around a derailment like I suggested above, I will point out that it has happened before. Approximately 10-12 years ago there was a major gas leak in the Park Ridge / Norwood Park area that shut down the UP-NW line during the evening rush hour. All Metra UP-NW express trains and a few locals that made stops after Mt. Prospect detoured over the UP West line (Geneva Sub) to, and then through, Proviso Yard connecting to the Milwaukee (New Line) Sub before re-entering the UP-NW (Harvard Sub) at Seeger. Talk about your rare mileage…
The Metra crews that work the North Central line out of Antioch also work both ex-Milwaukee Road commuter lines. So they should be qualified on the MD-N line.
Conceptually, there are ways this could have been handled differently than just shutting down the line for the whole day. There was a reason Metra did what it did. It may not have been a very good reason, or it may have been an excelent reason. We’ll probably never know.
BTW it was something like -12 F when all this happened.