CTA Service Socked by Overnight Ice Storm

[jajuan]

CTA service has really taken a big hit this morning from the overnight freezing rain. Red and Blue Line service is experiencing big delays. Yellow and Purple Line Express got suspended, and the rest of the rail lines are going through some minor delays. Most of the bus routes are having huge delays. The website shows almost the whole list of bus routes experiencing big delays. My sister couldn't even get to work because no buses were moving in our part of the West side. She called Kedzie at 6am to find out what problems were occurring and was told that no buses were getting sent out at that hour because of the ice. The 12 and 52 were at a standstill because what buses that did make it on the road were pulled over and not moving at all for about two hours. Their indicators on Bustracker showed them sitting at what stop they managed to make it to and sitting for that two hour time frame displaying 'No arrival times' messages. They just now started moving again about 15 minutes ago (8am). 148 has only one bus in service right now. That bus is 6025. It originally was the first bus on the route, leaving Ravenswood/Wilson at 6:20am (half hour delay in start of service), but got turned around at Montrose/Clarendon and went back to sit at Ravenswood until 7:48am. So basically 148 started service 2 hours late. 145 still has no buses showing in service. The 6 is showing no service yet. Both showing 'No arrival times' on Bustracker. Countless others are likely to show the same as it's a matter of trying to get buses in position to bring service back on track as quick as they can. 146 and 147 showing minimum 20-30 min delays. Both showing a number of 1000s in service. Maybe those NP operators don't want to chance jackknifing trying to drive an arctic. WGN showed a clip early this morning of 1768 sitting turned sideways almost perpendicular to traffic flow blocking much of the street somewhere along the 119 route after spinning out. Just a commuting nightmare this morning. Good thing this wasn't a regular full swing rush hour with everyone having to work.

[Busjack]

What's more interesting is that the website alerts say that Purple Line trains are running between Linden and Howard but not to the Loop. Apparently the problem is south of Howard, even though Red Line trains are running.

Also, FWIW, 15 isn't on the list. Probably just forgotten, though.

[Busjack]

Another bit of Amy Jacobson trivia. Although she is still reporting, as of 2:20 on WLS-AM that CTA bus service is suffering major delays and the Purple Line is not running to the Loop, the CTA site has withdrawn the alerts and says that Yellow and Purple Line service has resumed.

Apparently, Metro Traffic hasn't gotten the word yet.