Major delays as CTA suspends service on Red, Brown, and Purple lines

This morning, commuters who rely on the CTA’s Red, Brown, and Purple lines found their local stations to be crowded and chaotic scenes. Due to an ongoing police and fire investigation which appears to have started near the Fullerton station around 6:45 a.m. this morning, service along the major lines has been disrupted for the past few hours.

To help get commuters to work, the CTA has been providing shuttles from the Belmont and Sedgwick stations, however images shared on Twitter show commuters crowding on the street trying to find the shuttles and get into one. Other images depict pricey surge charges from rideshare apps from this morning’s commuting fiasco.

According to the CTA, which has been updating riders on Twitter throughout the morning, regular service along the Red and Brown lines was restored around 9:35 a.m. after hours of delays and congestion at stations.

The most recent tweets from the CTA indicate that service has been restored on these lines, but there are still delays and congestion.

Red, Brown & Purple line service has resumed thru the Fullerton stn area but expect residual delays as we get trains & crews back in place.

— cta (@cta)

August 15, 2017

The first tweet from the CTA regarding this morning’s police investigation and service shutdown was at 6:43 a.m.

95th-bound Red, Loop-bound Brown and Purple Line trains are standing at Fullerton due to police activity; crews working to restore service.

— cta (@cta)

August 15, 2017

Huge crowds were seen in and around the busy Belmont station this morning.

People are standing in the middle of Belmont trying desperately to find a shuttle bus. Most everyone waiting for a bus going to the loop pic.twitter.com/2T29VnL4BP

— Dawn Rhodes (@rhodes_dawn)

August 15, 2017

And because of the congestion and crowds trying to get downtown to work, rideshare apps were tacking on huge surge charges.