byte wrote:Couldn't they have just short-turned each line's trains at the first outlying station for each line? Each of those coincidentally has a CTA station nearby, which would delay commuters because of the transfer times, but not as much as simply shutting down the whole downtown terminal. And I wonder who actually made the call for shutting OTC down completely. Could have been a CPD move, but it also seems like something UP would do in its recent streak of bad customer service. EricL and I were talking about it last night and he put it pretty well that "Grain, coal, and automobiles don't know any better when the train isn't moving," and maybe UP is thinking its Metra riders are no different.
At the time this happened (IIRC around 3:15), I'd guess most equipment was out of position, probably a the western ave yard waiting moves back into OTC to get crew and load up.
Since a large portion of the crew was in Lockdown at OTC, they couldn't go anywhere
Similarly, I suspect moves to Union Station by UP trains would have required qualified Pilots as the regular UP engineers would not have been qualified on the MD lines to Union Station, and would not be allowed to take trains in there.
Also, add to that the fact the Conducters et all were still locked down inside OTC means even if they had got trains to Union, there wouldn't have been enough crew to work them
all in all, not much option for them but to do what they did. Fortunately, the shutdown was lifted by about 5pm