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Another Rail Accident… This Time, Chicago (Updated)

Not a good day for Mass Transit, today.

Chicago’s Channel 5 [1]/WMAQ  is reporting there’s been a derailment on the elevated Green line. From the look of the pictures, it appears the second of four cars on this particular train ‘caught a point’ on a switch, one end of the car going one way, and the other, the other way, thus missing a turn. All cars are upright, but some two dozen passenger injuries are reported.

 

Update:(Bit) CBS is now reporting [2]that the operator ran a light, and had over-ridden the saftey on the train. That and the physical evdience together suggest that the switch wasn’t locked into place correctly, which would explain both the red light the operator ran through, and the result. That scenario speaks to me of known problems with that switch.