A car collided with a Metra train near River Road and Miner Street in downtown Des Plaines, temporarily disrupting service on the Union Pacific Northwest Line. Train No. 641 remained stopped near Des Plaines.
Metra said nobody was in the car at the time of the crash.
Just before 5 p.m., inbound and outbound trains on the Union Pacific Northwest Line were stopped near Des Plaines, ABC7 Chicago reported. Trains were moving again with delays by 6:15 p.m.
Across its system, Metra provided 35.1 million trips in 2024, the agency’s annual ridership figures show.
Passengers Leave Stopped Train
Passengers were seen walking off the stopped train. Train No. 641 remained stopped near Des Plaines.
Trains were moving again with delays by 6:15 p.m.
Not the First Close Call in the Area
It was the second crash involving a Metra train and an abandoned vehicle in the same area in a little less than a week, according to a separate ABC7 Chicago report. Similar vehicle strikes have rattled the UPNW line elsewhere in recent memory: a train hit a car on Chicago's Northwest Side near Devon Avenue and Northwest Highway one Thursday morning, with all trains back on the move by 12:50 p.m., ABC7 Chicago reported at the time. The woman driving that car was taken to Lutheran General, Metra told the station.
Another collision near Palatine brought what Metra described as extensive delays during the evening rush, after a train struck a vehicle on the main line, according to WGN-TV. In that incident, outbound trains stayed stopped due to the collision involving train No. 629, and Metra said trains No. 629 and No. 631 would not operate past Palatine while trains No. 649 and No. 660 would not run at all, the station reported. Metra later cleared Track 2 for movement at restricted speed, per the same account. A Metra train also struck an abandoned car near Rand and Seegers in Des Plaines in a prior incident, with no one aboard the train hurt, ABC7 Chicago reported.
For motorists, the agency’s guidance is direct: never stop on tracks. In an emergency at a crossing, it advises people to call 911 or use the railroad’s emergency number posted there, and move away from the tracks.
