Two CTA trains collided in an incident on Chicago's North Side Tuesday morning, temporarily halting Brown and Purple Lines during the morning rush hour.
"According to preliminary reports, a southbound Brown Line train collided with a southbound Purple Line train north of the Sedgwick station," the Chicago Transit Authority said in a statement just before 10 a.m.
The incident took place just after 9 a.m. in the 1500 block of North Sedgwick Street in the city's Old Town neighborhood, authorities said.
At a news conference, fire officials and a CTA spokesman said there was no collision or derailment during the incident. But the agency later clarified that the trains did collide, making contact during the incident, though further details remained under investigation.
"We're not sure what happened yet," CTA Chief Transit Officer Donald Bonds said. "We've started to pull the video and also interview the operator and also from our control center just doing the start of the investigation of this right now, so we won't know until later today or early tomorrow morning exactly what happened in this situation."
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The CTA tweeted just after 9:15 a.m. that Loop-bound Brown Line trains and Purple Line Express trains were standing near Sedgwick as crews worked to restore service. At around 9:40 a.m., the CTA tweeted that service on the Purple Line was suspended between Howard and the Loop, and that Brown Line service was suspended between Fullerton and the Merchandise Mart due to the incident.
It wasn't clear how many passengers were on board the trains at the time of the collision, authorities said. Video of the scene showed the Chicago Fire Department using ladders on top of firetrucks to reach the elevated train tracks, with CTA personnel also walking alongside the halted trains.
PHOTOS: 2 CTA Trains Collide on Chicago's North Side
The trains began to move again at around 10:07 a.m., with Chicago Fire Department's Chief of Special Operations Tim Walsh saying the trains would stop at the Sedgwick station where additional emergency personnel would evaluate any passengers complaining of injuries.
One person on the train was pregnant and another was a diabetic, Walsh said, adding that both were taken to area hospitals for further examination.
In total, 14 passengers were taken to an area hospital to be checked, fire officials said.
The CTA said just after 10:30 a.m. that normal service had resumed on both lines, with delays expected to continue through the morning. The cause of the incident remained under investigation, officials said.
