Two vehicles that were stuck on the tracks between Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights have been removed. Inbound and outbound train movement has been restored. According to Metra, inbound and outbound trains may be operating 20 to 60 minutes behind schedule due to earlier switch problems and because of the vehicles that were stuck on the tracks.
You can now see Twitter updates from Metra on one page from The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com
See Arlingtoncardinal.com/twitter/metra for all Metra lines status updates.
See Arlingtoncardinal.com/twitter/metraNW for a focus on Metra near the northwest suburbs.
The Twitter Metra aggregate pages also include Twitter feeds from CTA, CDOT, and PACE Suburban Bus. The northwest line focus pages includes the Twitter feed from the Village of Arlington Heights.
The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com also provides a traffic page which uses cell phone share GPS information from cell phone users on Google Map and MapQuest traffic map layers …
See Arlingtoncardinal.com/traffic
UP-NW Advisory – Inbound and Outbound Train Movement Stopped Near Arlington Heights http://t.co/vGvblu5VFi
— Metra UP-NW (@metraUPNW) February 5, 2014
UP-NW Advisory – Inbound and Outbound Train Movement Restored – 20 to 60 Minute Delays http://t.co/vGvblu5VFi
— Metra UP-NW (@metraUPNW) February 5, 2014
An Alert from a Metra Passenger …
@Metra sitting on the tracks near Arlington heights is super annoying ! 1hr delay this morning! What a joke
— Rory Walsh (@RoryMWalsh) February 5, 2014
A spokesperson for the Arlington Heights Police Department was not aware where the vehicles were stalled. The village of Arlington Heights had no alerts about traffic on their official Twitter account, which inconsistently provides alerts — ranging from weather alerts to garbage alerts to crime alerts. The most recent alert was a from February 3, 2014 regarding a burglary.
Crime Alert regarding Residential Burglary occurred Feb. 2. http://t.co/xgw7EgcHT4
— ArlingtonHeightsIL (@ArlingtonHtsGov) February 3, 2014
Prior to June 5, 2013, The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com provided the residents and visitors of Arlington Heights with live updates from police radio communications regarding traffic incidents and congestion. Since June 5, 2013, the Arlington Heights Police Department and other northwest suburban police departments operating their 9-1-1 and police communications with Northwest Central Dispatch System have used a secret, military-grade police radio system that keeps the public and media in the dark about major incidents and jeopardizes the public safety of residents and visitors of these communities. The concerns have been brought to the attention of Arlington Heights mayor Thomas Hayes with no response, and no invitation to clarify the concerns.
If any residents or visitors were blocked by the trains and/or were inconvenienced by the lack of awareness of blocked intersections or blocked railroad grade crossings, please contact The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com via the Facebook link below, or via the resources on the CONTACT page … Arlingtoncardinal.com/contact.
Cardinal Note: As of June 5, 2013 — up to and including the date of this article — police incidents related to the above police agency are not reported in real time or within a prompt time period. Police protecting their realm of investigation and police activity, have chosen to use secret military-grade encrypted radios to withhold their police communications, which were previously open to the public and news media via monitoring of public safety scanning radios — with no known negative results locally.
The delayed knowledge or entirely blacked out knowledge resulting from encrypted police communications may protect certain police operations and investigations, but it also puts the public at risk in situations such as when armed and dangerous offenders are at large and when other similar situations occur, such as when desperate offenders of property crimes are eluding police. In other cases, the delayed or blacked out information inhibits or prohibits the possibility of the public providing early witness accounts before a criminal trail goes cold. Citizens are much more likely to recognize or recall suspicious or criminal activity if they are aware of the criminal incident within minutes or hours of its occurrence. The most serious incident involving dire results would be a trail that is allowed to go cold in the case of child abduction.
The lack of real time information from public police dispatch also weakens an effective neighborhood watch program mostly working to prevent property loss, but also working to prevent possible violent crimes.
Police have alternate ways to transmit tactical, operational or investigative information, while still keeping their main public dispatch channels open for the best balance of public safety and police safety.
Get updates from The Cardinal ALL NEWS FEEDS on Facebook. Just ‘LIKE’ the ‘Arlington Cardinal Page (become a fan of our page). The updates cover all posts and sub-category posts from The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com. You can also limit feeds to specific categories. See all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages at Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …