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By Virginia Groark and Courtney Flynn
Tribune staff reporters
August 25, 2006
Among the many woes of Chicago area commuters, here's a new one: The
train ran out of gas.
A Chicago-bound Union Pacific North Line train sputtered to a stop at
Central Street in Evanston about 7 p.m. Wednesday leaving 82
passengers stranded.
The problem was traced Thursday to a Union Pacific employee, said
Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet.
"An employee was told on a number of occasions to refuel the
locomotive and failed to do so," she said.
Metra riders reported that even the crew sounded bewildered when
announcing that the train, which departed Kenosha at 5:51 p.m., had
run out of fuel.
"I could hear them saying in disbelief, `We're out of gas.' ... Like
they were trying to register it themselves," said Chicago resident
John Hines, 45, who was on the train.
Some stranded passengers waited an hour for the next train or used
their cell phones to arrange for rides home. Others walked to their
destinations or hopped on a Chicago Transit Authority train to finish
their ride into Chicago.
Despite the inconvenience, several riders got a chuckle out of seeing
a locomotive engineer in a predicament that usually befalls
absent-minded or cash-strapped motorists.
"I thought they were only joking," said Joan Ellis, 43, who takes the
train nightly from her baby-sitting job in Lake Forest to her
Evanston home.
Typically, locomotives on that line are filled with diesel fuel in a
Chicago yard before heading north on the rail route, which runs
between the Ogilvie Transportation Center and Kenosha, Pardonnet
said.
But on Wednesday, the Union Pacific employee never filled the tank,
Pardonnet said.
The train left Ogilvie at 4:13 p.m. and made it to Kenosha without
any problems. But on its way back to Chicago, it ran out of fuel
north of the Central Street stop in Evanston and "sort of limped into
the station," Pardonnet said.
Another train had to push the disabled one back to Chicago, she
added.
Union Pacific, which operates Metra trains on the North Line,
apologized to riders.
"We regret that and certainly apologize to the commuters and those
who were affected," said Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona. "It was
not our intention."
Train crews are responsible for monitoring fuel levels, said Arbona,
who did not provide details about the incident. He would not say if
the employee who failed to refuel the locomotive or anyone else was
suspended or fired.
"That's a personnel question and obviously we keep those private," he
said.
It was the first time in recent memory that a locomotive had run out
of fuel during a passenger run, Pardonnet said. Union Pacific senior
management officials told Metra Thursday that they were taking steps
to ensure it would not happen again, she said.
Chicago resident Herman Surjono, 33, laughed when he heard the
announcement that the train was out of fuel.
"It was kind of funny," said Surjono, who takes the train nightly
from his Lake Forest job to his home on Chicago's North Side.
"I guess I was surprised. I mean how could this have happened? I
thought public transportation was supposed to be more reliable."
The incident caused several commuters to seek alternate ways home,
but it posed a different problem for Hines, who snapped photographs
as proof that it had occurred.
"The most difficult part for me was trying to convince my girlfriend,
Kathy, that I was going to be late because the train ran out of gas,"
he said. "That's why I took the pictures."
