The Airport Transit System at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was out of service for several hours Sunday, leading to frustrations, large crowds and major delays for anyone trying to get through the airport.
The system, commonly known as the "people mover," was shutdown for an unknown reason, forcing passengers at Terminal 5 to wait in long lines to catch a shuttle bus to the airports' other terminals.
"I've never seen it like this... is insane," one traveler commented.
At 3:06 p.m., O'Hare tweeted that the Airport Transit System was temporarily out of service, adding bus shuttle service was active between Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 5 as well as the Multi-Modal Facility. Travelers were advised to allow extra time as crews worked to restore service.
Service had resumed as 8:17 p.m., according to a second tweet.
Not only were some in fear of missing connecting flights because of the temporary shut down, others were having a difficult time trying to use rideshare services.
Local
“If you want to get anyone with the rideshares, Uber or Lyft, you have to go to Terminal 2. We used to get them here, but now you got to go to Terminal 2. But you have to take a shuttle bus, and there are at least 400 people waiting for each shuttle bus, and only two are coming at a time.”
Adding to the frustration what that some travelers weren't sure where to go - because they were confused about whether the transit service was actually shut down.
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“Beyond frustrated, but again I travel for a living, this is actually worse than I've seen," one traveler said. "I mean, there's hundreds of people out there and nobody knows where to go, everybody's telling to go to the train and train [is] shutdown.”
The Chicago Department of Aviation has yet to say what caused the service stoppage.
