By: Ramiyah Lee (Senn Sophomore)
The Chicago Transit Authority’s Red and Purple lines had major delays on March 24 when a train hit a track signal.
The fallen signal caused a power outage. Many students were late to school and left trying to find other ways to get there.
“I was at Grand,” said Sophomore Reiki’e Williams. “They’re just like, ‘Yeah, you got to leave the train.'”
Williams commutes to Senn from the south side every day. She had to take three buses to arrive at Senn, arriving around 9 a.m.
At around 7:11 a.m., the Red and Purple Line Trains were shut down between Thorndale and Grand. These trains are the only ones that run far enough north in order to get to Senn. The Brown Line was running with many delays soon after. The only other options were buses and rideshare services.
“They had taken the shuttle bus all the way up to Fullerton,” said Chimin Sterling, (Sophomore). “I had to get on another hot shuttle bus all the way out here.”
Sterling also commutes to Senn from the south side. She arrived at school around 9:46 a.m., almost two hours after school started.
“They wouldn’t even let me on the tracks,” said Sophomore Jeremiah Wilkin.
Shuttle buses were made available for CTA riders but they didn’t arrive in an adequate amount of time, leaving people to resort to calling Ubers to finish their commute. The Uber prices added on the price to get to school.
“Okay, so I got on the bus and then the bus passed my stop because I didn’t know I was getting off,” said Zaria Roberson (Sophomore). “Moral of the story, if I’m getting on the bus, I’m staying home.”
She didn’t get to school until around 11:50 which is Roberson’s 5th period.
“I couldn’t take the train, I had to take the bus and it made me late,” said Sophomore Dare Edaghese.
Even though Edaghese travels from uptown, the bus delays made him late.
“My mom picked me up from the train and took me to school,” said Violet LaBash (Sophomore).
Some trains didn’t go further than Fullerton and some stopped at Grand. It caused a lot of congestion at the stations and buses experienced many delays due to heavier than normal traffic. All trains are running smoothly now and have resumed their regular schedules.
