Don't Call It a Derailment

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 19, 2011 7:30PM

Screeencap via Chicago Tribune unedited video.

The trains are running again on the Brown, purple and Red Lines after this morning's Brown Line derailment at Belmont that caused two-thirds of the North Side to have another excuse besides staying out late after last night's Cubs game to be late to work. Except that CTA is stepping back from its earlier assessment that what happened was a derailment.

The cause of this morning's cockup was a switching problem that caused one of the northbound Brown Line train's cars to have wheels on both the Red Line and Brown Line tracks. CTA spokeswomen Noelle Gaffney and Lambrini Lukidi said that, since the tracks for the two lines run parallel and no wheels actually came off the tracks, this wasn't technically a derailment. But the screencap above and the unedited video from the Tribune tell a markedly different story.

Is a train car that didn't derail supposed to sit on tracks like that?

This is what happens when a world class city has the public transportation system of a city in a developing nation.