Two men suffered minor injuries after a CTA Red Line subway train car jumped the tracks -- and went up onto the platform -- in the South Loop Thursday morning, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
As of 5:47 a.m., CTA Red Line service was fully restored and trains were back to a normal schedule and routes, CTA spokewoman Kim Myles said.
About 1:20 a.m. a still-and-box was called for a CTA Red Line train derailment in the 1100 block of South State Street, near the Roosevelt station, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Joe Roccasalva. There was no fire, according to Roccasalva.
At 1:10 a.m., a second rail car of a four-car northbound Red line, derailed near East 13th Street, according to Myles. When asked what caused the incident, Myles said, "It is under investigation.''
There were 16 passengers on board the train with two people reported injured, Myles said.
Two men suffered minor injuries and were transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition, Roccasalva said. One of the men did not have apparent injuries, said John Marsden, a field officer from the Chicago Fire Department.
The train operator has been taken out of service while investigations are under way, according to Myles who said drug tests are part of that investigation.
The train jumped off the track following a track switch at the State Street station, Roccasalva said. "It hopped off the tracks," he said.
Only the middle car of the CTA train traveling north derailed, according to Michael Gubricky, Chicago Fire Chief of the First Battalion. Gubricky said the train involved had five cars.
"It jumped the switch,"Gubricky said. The bottom of the car caught the platform and it jumped up onto the platform."
The train did not go up onto the platform in an area where people wait for the trains and Gubricky described the incident -- and the fact the train actually was up onto the platform -- as "unusual." The train appeared to leaning at about a 20% angle, but did not tip over, according to Gubricky.
Myles disputed that the train went onto the platform -- instead saying the train was merely leaning against the platform.
There were 20 passengers total, all adults, and no one "self-evacuated," Gubricky said. Riders -- all of whom were able to walk through an underground tunnel -- were escorted off the train, up the stairs and to CTA shuttle buses that were taking people to their destinations, Gubricky said.
Myles countered that most of the passengers exited the rail car onto the platform and did not walk through a tunnel, but "maybe some people toward the back of the train had to use an adjacent stairway next to the train."
The incident happened in the far south end of the Roosevelt station, Myles said.
The still-and-box was struck out at 1:36 a.m., according to Roccasalva.
Jason Hicks, 23, of south suburban Harvey, was traveling north on the Red Line to the Sheridan stop, when he felt the train jerk.
"We felt [the train] fall off it's wheel and hit the platform," Hicks said. "There were sparks and smoke along with it."
The train conductor and police and fire officials escorted everyone through the train tunnel and up through the street, Hicks said. There were 15 other passengers inside the car and most were sleeping at the time, he said.
"No one was screaming," Hicks said. "It was just a surprise. It was unexpected."
Leroy Ross, 51, of the North Side, was returning from work as a cook at a South Side pizza restaurant when he "heard a loud noise."
"I was sitting there and the next thing I know, the CTA people are telling us to evacuate," Ross said.
Ross exited through the tunnel which he described as "dark, but it wasn't scary."