Another reason passengers get delayed

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View north from Fullerton

It’s not just CTA’s suboptimal management that causes passengers to be delayed.  Fire yesterday just west of the Red Line near Altgeld, trains blocked for something like three hours.  The train on Track 4 pulled back to Fullerton shortly after this photo.

After about twenty minutes it was clear service wouldn’t resume soon.  A bus shuttle was promised, but downstairs there was just one empty bus labeled “not in service.”  Even if buses were available, closure of Sheffield meant traffic was even more of a mess than usual.

So, a nice walk to Belmont, I do wonder how the CA there would have responded to a demand for free admission but as it happened I had a valid transfer and no CA was in sight anyway, just a lot of folks waiting for that mythical bus.

Can’t really blame CTA for this one, doubtless there’s plenty of blame for other agencies but I’m not privy to the details.

A three-hour delay didn't prevent the "information" display from promising six trains coming thru Fullerton in nine minutes.