Live Updates: Keep Track of Winter Storm Closures, Delays and More on our Live Blog
Airline passengers and motorists aren't the only travelers and commuters impacted by a brutal winter storm affecting Northwest Indiana and the entire Chicago area.
Chicago area Metra trains as well as Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains are experiencing freezing switches, delays, train tracking problems and even crew shortages, the agencies report.
Thursday, Metra, which sets its tracks on fire to combat freezing temperatures, announced it would operate with modified service on Friday because of the winter storm and advised customers to allow extra time if they need to travel.
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By Friday however, delays from the weather and crew shortages had already begun to impact the limited schedules.
Around 6:45 a.m., Metra reported that an UP-NW train, which travels along Chicago's North Shore, would be delayed by nearly a half hour due to a crew shortage.
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On Metra's Electric line, which runs southwest of the city, Metra tweeted that its trains were experiencing switch and train tracking problems, as well as "mechanical" failures.
Find Metra's service alerts and delays here.
According to a 7 a.m. update from the CTA, Blue and Orange Line trains are experiencing some of the biggest problems.
According to the CTA, Blue Line service is operating with "minor delays" due to "track switching problems" at Rosemont. The Orange Line, the CTA says, are running with "residual delays following earlier track switching problems at Midway."
For those hoping to fly out of town, O'Hare and Midway Airports have reported a combined total of more than 540 flight cancellations as of 7 a.m. Friday
And, ComEd reports about 1,200 customers have been affected by outages throughout the storm, according to a live power outages map provided by the utility.
