The CTA Yellow Line is set to resume service Friday morning after a seven-week suspension following a train crash that hospitalized 19 people, including three critically injured.
The first scheduled Yellow Line train hit the rails around 4:45 a.m. Friday with new safety measures. Those measures include lower speed limits, track cleaning, bolstered communication with train operators and supervisors aboard trains for the first few runs, the CTA announced Thursday.
The agency has been running shuttle buses along the Skokie Swift line in the north suburbs since the Nov. 16 crash near the Howard Street station, when a southbound train struck a CTA snowplow on the tracks for training.
The CTA pinned the lengthy closure on the National Transportation Safety Board’s field investigation and CTA’s own extensive testing.
The transit agency said it has run several test trains on the line in various weather conditions and did not find any issues.
The CTA “looked at every aspect of this incident, as thoroughly as we could, to ensure the highest levels of safety when we reopened,” CTA President Dorval Carter said in a news release. “I will never compromise safety for expediency.”
CTA officials at 8 a.m. were expected to provide an update as the first day of service continues.
The NTSB released its preliminary report on the Yellow Line crash last month but did not rule on the cause of the crash. Federal investigators have said they’re looking at several factors in the crash, including debris on the tracks that impeded braking and incorrect braking distance estimates.
The NTSB previously hinted at the CTA’s new safety measures, including reducing maximum train speeds from 55 mph to 35 mph, and down to 25 mph in the area near the Howard station where the train slammed into a snowplow.
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Last month, Carter said the conditions behind the Yellow Line crash were specific to that part of the rail line and did not exist anywhere else.
The CTA on Thursday said it will have crews power-wash Yellow Line tracks to remove debris that may have played a role in the November crash. The CTA also said it will implement a measure requiring operators of noncommuter equipment to get verbal confirmation with dispatchers before moving that equipment.
The Yellow Line’s lengthy closure marks a contrast from 2014, when the O’Hare Blue Line stop was reopened less than a week after a Blue Line operator dozed off and her train overran the bumper, crashing into the escalator leading to the airport.
Following the news of the line's reopening, Clifford Law Offices, who are representing several of the injured passengers, released the following statement:
“Clifford Law Offices is conducting its own investigation to figure out exactly what happened regarding the Yellow Line crash in November. The NTSB concluded that the conductor was aware of equipment on the tracks as well as a design flaw, but there is still much to be learned about exactly what went wrong in this avoidable incident. The public remains in the dark, and the CTA needs to be more transparent so the passengers can have more confidence riding on the Yellow Line," the statement said.
The crash remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, with a final report expected to released later this year.
