Wednesday Red Line reroute caused by fire department activity

The CTA Red Line, the city's most used train route which connects DePaul's Lincoln Park and Loop campuses, was delayed yesterday due to an apparent fire in the subway.

Train service was disrupted around 2:30 or 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to several DePaul students and a CTA employee. Train service was back to normal by 4 p.m., although the CTA warned on its official website of residual delays.

Graduate student Kate Oelrich was on a Red Line train about to enter the subway after leaving Fullerton station when it was rerouted. Just prior to descending, the train stopped.

"It was kind of just hanging there," she said, before it eventually switched tracks and ran the Purple Line's route. "The conductor said we were being rerouted because of police work, and that's all they said."

There were significant delays as announcements had to be made at each stop explaining that the train was, in fact, a Red Line train on Purple Line tracks.

The CTA's official website claims the delay was caused by Chicago Fire Department activity on the tracks between the Roosevelt and Cermak/Chinatown stops. A CTA employee at the Jackson stop wasn't much more informed than anyone else, noting only that there was "supposedly a fire." He had no information as to the cause or extent.