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Damaged CTA train removed from O’Hare station
Well the train went off the rails.
Ha ha…definitely a derailment following a wreck.
Why would I call it a “wreck”, instead of a “derailment”?
Maxfield,
This is only written to underline the concept that a “dead-end terminal” needs only rules which prescribe and protect safe working. If the rule governed-person can’t stay awake…
I have been there.
We made no safety stops, in fact when we made the last stop before 3rd and Townsend, in the cab we’d say “Next Stop, Rickey’s,”
Just over the bumper walkway, Rickey’s, a grill, bar and restaurant
in the San Francisco terminal building at Third Street and Townsend Street…just over the bumper and the passageway that crossed the ends of the stub tracks at mile post zero.
Why the train operator, judgement impaired maybe by fatigue, did not refuse the call to work in Chicago when the operator was…impaired by fatigue.
Judgement about going to work when you are out of it?
The case against some agent of management saying, “you can’t lay off”
One has to remember that probably there have been a close to million berthing’s on this stub end terminal track since the station was opened in 1984 and until Monday morning there was finally a failure. The operator was nearing the end of her shift and perhaps did not feel fatigued when she signed up for duty. She had successfully made 99% of her station stops during her shift up until the last one. Most media types, politicians and lawyers would be proud of getting a 99% grade on their high school and college tests. Needless to say there are many things to be learned from this incident so let’s not jump on the blame game bandwagon. The NSTB and the professionals at CTA will sort it out.
Why would you be allowed to legally enter a dead-end terminal at 25 mph? Most railroad rules require restricted speed (15 mph) plus a safety brake application 200 feet short of the bumper. I estimated the speed from the videos at about 30mph. Much too fast even for a subway train.
Senseless for employee to work pass 48 hours a week. greedy earning and physical less.
As far as dead end tracks are concerned London Underground learned a very hardlesson in 1975 when a train went into a dead end tunnel at Moorgate in the morning rush hour. Over 30 people were killed.
The end result as far as safety was concerned was a system of approach control, ie signals clear only if the train can be proved to be going slowly enough. London Underground also has (on its older lines) mechanical train stops which when raised hit a brake cock on the train to provide a mechanical way of putting on the brakes. These are interlocked to the signals, so a train will be tripped if it goes through a red signal.
Does anyone know whether anything equivalent, mechanical or electronic, exists in Chicago?
I can’t recall a bumper collision in Grand Central Terminal, a mostly (except for a few loop tracks) stub terminal. Employee quality, on the NYC, NYNH&H, Amtrak, and now, M-NR might be a factor. PRR had some “doozies” in Washington, especially putting a GG-1 in the basement. Rahm Israel Emanuel: take note! P. S.: doesn’t the MTA NY subway system still have ‘trip mechanisms’ that stop trains that pass stop signals?
The local story is more involved than the one here. There was a safety trip device before the end of track, but obviously it wasn’t spaced for 30 MPH. Today the speed limit has been decreased to 15 MPH entering the station. What is sickening is that the union is protecting the operator to make sure she isn’t fired. I guess they want her to be put on another train and try it again. Maybe next time she’ll make it all the way to the top of the now removed escalator, and maybe even kill someone. Hopefully they’ll sue the union.
There could be a pillar with shock-absorbing bumpers in front of each rail to hold back a train the next time this happens.
@William D. Hays: There have been a few bumper collisions on the NYCTA over the years. Among them, a Grand Central Shuttle hit a bumper block. The MTA has installed giant “STOP SIGNS” on the bumpers. Another crash was in a train yard when a train wound up dangled over the edge. A similar incident occured in Jamaica. So yes the NYCTA has had these accidents as well even with trippers.
There is no parallel between this event and that which had the Federal coming into the concourse in Washington, which was caused when somehow an anglecock in the brake line was closed, preventing the brakes from being applied. The engineer endeavored to slow the train at the proper place, and could not, and could not stop the train where it should have been stopped because, except for the first few cars, the train had no working brakes.
The eight hundred pound gorrila in the room question: So the Chicago MTA system is so far back in the dark ages that no system exists (or even worse does not work) to monitor safe and correct operation of the trains? Is the system operated just about like a city bus where safety and stoping at designated stops is all left to the bus operator and how he/she wields the steering wheel, brake and accellorator pedals. Oh my…
The eight hundred pound gorrila in the room question: So the Chicago MTA system is so far back in the dark ages that no system exists (or even worse does not work) to monitor safe and correct operation of the trains? Is the system operated just about like a city bus where safety and stoping at designated stops is all left to the bus operator and how he/she wields the steering wheel, brake and accellorator pedals. Oh my…
Note that this accident was on an “electric” road (subway), not a “steam” road (commuter train). (Drive-By) Newsmedia made a mess of this story; when I heard “commuter” “train” I immediately thought this accident was on the ex-Wisconsin Central Antioch line, rather than the Rapid Transit. Dumb reporters don’t know the difference–Trains Magazine ought to.
But I do remember that Chicago’s Rapid Transit had a lot of unsignalled line-of-sight operation historically including some very bad collisions with CNS&M trains among others. Things like this tend to happen there.
Now the problem with employees’ being able to (over)work juicy overtime (the untold story of the 4 dead at Spuyten Duyvil) to the point of dozing off, that problem is everywhere and I doubt anything will ever be done about for obvious labor-management reasons
CTA tolerates a operator who admits to being asleep twice
with no discipline. Who in their right mind would ride a
system with so little regard for it’s passengers safety.