Extreme cold on Tuesday further disrupted the already sluggish beat of everyday life, and frustration was beginning to show through from bus stops to City Hall.
For the second straight day, commuters were the hardest hit–and, with Chicago Transit Authority trains falling by the wayside at a dramatic rate, officials were beginning to show concern about how long recovery efforts will take following the weekend blizzard and the subsequent frigid blast. Fully one-quarter of CTA trains were expected to be out of service on Wednesday, victims of the weather.
An agitated Mayor Richard Daley, who roused CTA president Frank Kruesi from bed Tuesday morning, criticized the transit agency’s performance during the weather emergency, and then the mayor canceled a trip to Washington so he could ride herd on the situation.
“No one is satisfied if it takes people an hour or two hours getting to and from work. . . . There is no excuse for these delays,” Daley said after City Hall was flooded with angry calls from freezing commuters who were stranded for long periods at bus stops and rail platforms.
Although Metra faced some lengthy delays Tuesday, it operated much closer to schedule than the CTA. The rail line took the extraordinary step of offering to let commuters who show a CTA transit card or pass ride Metra for free through Wednesday night.
And while Chicago Public Schools officials announced that classes would resume Wednesday, there will be no bus service for students.
Following the worst snowstorm to pummel the region in decades, a lot of what could go wrong did when subzero air got into everything mechanical and human. Temperatures Tuesday morning ranged from 5 below zero to 16 below.
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The heat went out at the Cook County Jail as well as at a Chicago Housing Authority building. Funeral services and burials were delayed because of impassable cemetery roads and family travel complications.
The highways on Tuesday were little better, as the temperatures rendered salt ineffective. The number of automobile accidents rose sharply.
Area police departments said Tuesday there were too many vehicle accidents to count, the majority blamed on salt-resistant “black ice” that was responsible for the temporary shutdown Tuesday morning of parts of the Dan Ryan and Stevenson Expressways and the Bishop Ford Freeway. The Minuteman trucks that patrol expressways looking for disabled vehicles handled 296 calls by 2 p.m., up from the 100 incidents that usually occur by mid-afternoon on a weekday, said Roy Olson of the Illinois Department of Transportation.
“The Stevenson was basically unnavigable between Lake Shore Drive and California Avenue until the sun warmed the pavement,” said an Illinois State Police trooper.
Officials urged motorists to switch to public transit Wednesday unless they absolutely must drive, but the advice was tempered by more bad news from the CTA:
Some 300 of the transit agency’s 1,100 trains were knocked out by the weekend blizzard, either buried by snow or mechanically damaged. Although some have been repaired and returned to service, 64 more were damaged Tuesday when a buildup of snow on the Blue Line tracks near O’Hare International Airport pulled the electrified third rail out of position, destroying components on the passing trains.
“If you are a rider who has alternatives to the Blue Line, take the alternatives,” Kruesi advised. He said the CTA’s other six rail lines would be running trains “at reasonable frequencies, but less than what we’d like.”
Blue Line service was halted between the airport and the CTA’s station in Jefferson Park, and it won’t resume Wednesday morning. A contingency plan included running shuttle buses between O’Hare and Jefferson Park and operating shuttle trains from Jefferson Park to connect the O’Hare branch of the Blue Line with the Congress and Douglas branches.
Elsewhere, long waits greeted commuters at many CTA bus stops because the buses were jam-packed and often unable to take on additional passengers.
“What I couldn’t understand is that some buses had room for more riders, but the drivers did not make stops and require passengers already on board to move to the rear of the bus,” complained Mark Hersh, who waited for more than a half-hour with dozens of other frozen commuters for a bus at Webster and Stockton Drives.
“It reminded me of lifeboats on the Titanic that hit the water less than full. It’s just stupidity, but in this weather stupidity that really hurts people,” Hersh said.
The temperatures were expected to remain in the teens Wednesday, then dip back below zero at night.
The shift from heavy snowfall over the weekend to unbearable cold delivered an especially potent one-two punch, and not only to CTA equipment.
Car engines have difficulty running in such cold temperatures because the fluids that keep them humming become too thick in cold weather. Oil, for example, takes on the consistency of sludge.
Metra spokesman Frank Malone said the cold has not been a serious problem for the diesel locomotives–but it has created havoc with switches, which are segments of movable track that allow trains to go from one track to another.
“We have a number of locations around the system where we have an incredibly intricate complex of switches, where routes come together,” he said. “And when the snow comes fast and heavy, we can’t keep the switches clean.”
Metra uses a variety of techniques, from electrical blowers to workers with shovels. But it has been difficult to keep the switches free of snow, especially because trains drop snow as they use the tracks.
As Chicagoans know, there are thousands of miles of sidewalks to shovel and keep clear. A common way to keep shoveled walks free of ice is to sprinkle salt or some other material, such as calcium chloride. But even salt and calcium chloride are ineffective at the very low temperatures the region endured on Tuesday.
Cab companies had the same problems as every other motorist–excavating vehicles from mountains of snow and keeping batteries working in the cold.
People who wanted to reserve a cab likely were met with busy signals and no guarantee that a driver could maneuver through snow-clogged side streets.
“Be patient,” said Javad Rahmaniasl, radio manager at the Flash Cab Co. “I can’t promise anyone anything.”