CTA Yellow Line reopens Friday, 7 weeks after train crash

The CTA Yellow Line reopened Friday morning, seven weeks after a crash on the tracks injured more than a dozen people and left the train line to Skokie closed.

CTA has attributed the nearly two-month closure to testing the agency was conducting on the line and a desire to have National Transportation Safety Board investigators return to Chicago for a second visit, as questions lingered about the factors contributing to the crash and whether it could have been prevented.

CTA’s reopening of the line, also known as the Skokie Swift, comes with several new safety measures, including lowering train speeds to a maximum of 35 mph, down from 55 mph before the crash. Speeds in the area of the collision were to be lowered to 25 mph.

On Nov. 16, a Yellow Line train was approaching the Howard station, near the border of Chicago and Evanston, when it rear-ended a “snow-fighter” track-plowing train that was on the tracks for scheduled training. At least 16 people were taken to hospitals…