Local News

Frustrated Passengers Led To Subway Mess

Stuck In Tunnel For Hours, Many Decided To Leave On Own; 7 Suffer Minor Injuries

 SLIDESHOW: Blue Line Evacuation

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Frustrated passengers, stuck in a Blue line subway tunnel for about two hours, decided to take matters into their own hands by leaving the train and forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of passengers--and leading to a big mess under the streets of Chicago.

Seven CTA passengers suffered minor injuries and breathing problems and were hospitalized. None of their injuries or ailments was thought to be life threatening.

Send us your photos or video of the Blue Line shutdown.

Commuters like Matt Wormley were heading home Tuesday night after the morning's breakdown.

Wormley was among the thousands riding four trains when officials say a circuit blew and caused the first train to stall.

"It was chaos; it was a mess. People were getting sick. They were angry," Wormley said.

"They said to wait for a couple of minutes and it ended up being two hours before they did anything," he added.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports at 8:10 a.m., a southbound Blue Line train was approaching the Clark and Lake stop, when it stopped due to mechanical issues. The engineer tried to make repairs, but trains backed up, officials said.

At that point, there had been no order or announcement to evacuate. But on one of the trains north of the one that broke down, passengers started to evacuate anyway, pulling open the doors using the emergency handles.
 
The CTA said the situation then became extremely serious due to the danger of the electrified third rail.

"Once they self-evacuated off of the train, our security protocol requires us to immediately remove power to the whole system. That is because if we had a customer on the track that is electrified, we could risk great harm to someone," CTA President Ron Huberman said.

Thus, power was turned off between Chicago and Roosevelt and trains were stopped and evacuated, according to the CTA. 

A man on that second train says the electricity went out 30 minutes before the self-evacuation.

"The train in front of us had stalled and that was the extent of it, then the power went out, no air, people were passing out, throwing up," said CTA rider Jay Miller. "Just happy to be out of there."

CTA personnel then attempted to re-board passengers onto the train, but failed to do so, Huberman said.

About 50 staffers then went into the subway and joined forces with the Fire Department to evacuate the subway, Huberman said. As of 11 a.m., passengers were still exiting at Clinton and Fulton streets, along Lake Street downtown, and at Grand and Milwaukee avenues.

Many passengers CBS 2 talked to said they'd been waiting on darkened, hot, powerless trains for as long as 2 1/2 hours before they were evacuated.

Four eight-car trains were affected, containing thousands of passengers.

"We sat for two hours and they didn't give us any information or tell us what to do," one passenger told CBS 2. "And then they finally opened the doors and we walked out."

Huberman says he's pleased with the way his people and the Chicago Fire department handled things.

When told of multiple reports from passengers who said there was no help and nobody from the CTA to guide them to safety, Huberman said, "We're going to take a look and do a full investigation."

Huberman blamed the riders who made the decision to head into the tunnels for the duration of the crisis.

"Certainly, if those particular passengers had not self-evacuated, we could have gotten people off and restored service much sooner," he said.

"The only time we recommend customers self-evacuate is if you see danger, which means fire, smoke," Huberman said. "And so while it was a real hardship for people to wait, it would have prevented us from having to do the full evacuation that we did."

Easier said than done, is what some commuters say.

"If the majority of the people were getting off the train, I would get off the train," said CTA passenger Jennifer Sullivan.

Emergency signs also direct passengers to follow the instructions from the crews.

But Wormley has a suggestion for those instructions.

"I would have made all communications come over public address system, rather than haphazardly some of it coming from CTA people," he said.

Sources within the transit agency tell CBS 2 that the cause of Tuesday's train breakdown was a part that simply fell off of the train.

The report of an air conditioner cover that fell off the first train is strangely reminiscent of the faulty part that caused the 2006 Blue Line derailment.

The National Transportation Safety Board ended up blasting the CTA for failing to properly inspect the system.

But CTA officials say a circuit blew and that is what caused the first train to stall.

Sources tell CBS 2 that after the first train broke down Tuesday, there was "chaos" in the CTA control center, and that operators there were confused about how to handle the growing crisis.

"We've been working hard to win our customers' respect," Huberman said. "We know that certainly incidents like today will set us back."

Riders Tell Stories Of Confusion, Fear Aboard Trains
Jerry Galvin said he was on the first car of the second train. He said the train ahead of them was stuck and was unable to accelerate up an incline just before the Clark and Lake station. The operator of the train directly behind the one with the problem told passengers they would be pushing the first train up the incline, Galvin said.

"After a brief period, the operator came out of the driver's booth and advised people in the first car to step back because the stuck train was going to backup and they could not see us," Galvin said in an e-mail. "This was preceded and followed with her blowing the whistle, so that apparently they could see/hear us in the train behind the stuck train. "

The second train was coupled to the first train, but the attempt to push the first train up the incline did not work, Galvin said. 

"The train screeched to a halt as everyone jerked forward. At some point here, the power was cut and the train was dark except for the emergency lights," Galvin said.

Later, power was restored and another attempt was made to push the train, but it did not work, Galvin said.

It was at that point that people started to self-evacuate from the train, Galvin said.

"(T)here was mass confusion on the part of the CTA employees on whether we would be walking on the inside of the train or on the catwalk in the tunnel," he said.

Another passenger sent video to cbs2chicago.com. The video shows passengers being startled by a loud bang as the second train was attempting to move the disabled train. One rider described the noise and some sort of electrical explosion or pop.

"It reminded me of the videos I see of electricity experiments where shocks of electricity are applied and it gives off a bright light and a loud sound,''  said this rider, who added that there two electrical pops while the train was stuck in the tunnel.

Parts of the video documents a calm and informative engineer escorting riders to safety, and though announcements by speaker were made throughout the situation, some say help didn't come soon enough.

"The voice overhead was very polite but no one was getting us off the train," said Rhonda Kendall.

With so many trains and passengers impacted accounts of their time in the tunnels range from disturbing to heartening.

"We realized that we were going to be there a while people started to bond, sing songs make jokes, pass cell phones around so we can call family and work," Kendall said.

But many said they were seriously concerned, although no one described the atmosphere as one of panic.

"They told us not to open the doors and we were hot we lost power, a lady fainted twice in our car, none of us had cell service, so it was not a good morning," said Heather Hamman.

"The train stopped. They said it's going be a little while, and then they finally told us that the train ahead of us was affected," said Sarafina Benavides. "That was like an hour, and then there was no power, and then they turned off the air, and then people started getting off. And then finally they said they would evacuate us."

Benavides had a black substance on her forehead and clothes.

"The train is dirty anyway, but when we were walking down the tunnel, it's just all rust and gross," she said. See video of the evacuation.

Benavides said in her train car, a few people experienced medical problems.

"I got dizzy, another lady was getting overheated. Somebody was diabetic; we had a diabetic emergency. Somebody else needed water," she said.

"CTA used our train to try and push the train in front of ours and hit it very hard," Pedro Ortiz wrote in an e-mail to CBS 2. "One woman had a panic attack. The power went out, we were evacuated from the train and had to walk all the way to Clark and Lake and cross over the tracks.''

Ortiz said there had been electrical fire, but Huberman said this was not the case. 

CBS 2's Mike Parker, Vince Gerasole, Joanie Lum and Dorothy Tucker, and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

---