Traffic & Transit

CTA Yellow Line Still Suspended 11 Days After Crash That Injured 38

Chicago Transit Authority officials have yet to announce when service on the Skokie Swift is set to resume.

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Chicago and Evanston fire departments were dispatched to the scene of a Nov. 16 crash involving a CTA Yellow Line train and a piece of snow removal equipment at the Howard Street switching station.
Chicago and Evanston fire departments were dispatched to the scene of a Nov. 16 crash involving a CTA Yellow Line train and a piece of snow removal equipment at the Howard Street switching station. (Chicago Fire Department)

CHICAGO — More than 10 days after 38 people were injured in a train crash and derailment near the Howard Street station, service on the CTA Yellow Line remains suspended. As on Monday, no reopening date has been announced.

On the morning of Nov. 16, a train heading from Skokie was moving at an estimated speed of about 27 mph when it smashed into snow plow equipment on the tracks approaching the station in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

According to National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy, the snow removal equipment was on the tracks to train employees.

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A preliminary investigation determined that a braking design problem prevented the train from stopping fast enough. A final report is not expected for at least another year.

Of the 31 passengers and seven CTA employees injured in the crash, 23 of them were taken to area hospitals.

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A person is taken away via ambulance after a Chicago Transit Authority train crashed into a piece of equipment that was on the rails near the Howard CTA station Nov. 16 on Chicago's North Side. (Ashlee Rezin /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Last week, attorneys for a pair of injured passengers filed lawsuits against the CTA alleging the train was operated negligently, bringing the total number of complaints against the agency to four.

Attorney Joseph Murphy filed lawsuits on behalf of 19-year-old passenger Alishan Zaidi, who was seated in the first car, and Zubair Hussain, who was knocked unconscious and hospitalized for three days after striking his head in the crash.

“This type of crash was completely preventable,” Murphy said.

“This is a catastrophic failure on the part of the CTA to crash into a snow plow on the same tracks going in the same direction on a sunny, warm day," the partner at Clifford Law Offices, which represents all four injured plaintiffs, said in a statement. "Many questions need to be answered so commuter passengers know that it won’t happen again.”

More than 1,500 people a day travel on the Yellow Line. Since the crash, shuttle buses have been stopping along its route.

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