Overnight fire shuts down CTA Loop L service

A cable fire near some Loop elevated tracks late Saturday forced the CTA to shut down all elevated train service in the Loop for almost seven hours.

Shuttle buses were provided for CTA customers between the Cermak-Chinatown station and the Merchandise Mart, CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said.

Gaffney said there was a fire to cable which provided power to the trains, near the elevated tracks at Wabash Avenue, just south of Van Buren Street, late Saturday. This affected service on the Red, Green, Orange and Brown Lines and no trains operated on the Loop elevated until damage was assessed and repairs were made. The Red Line was affected because the line was running on the elevated tracks because of subway construction this weekend.

The CTA was notified just after 11 p.m. Saturday of the cable fire, and decided to shut down train service. The fire was extinguished quickly, Gaffney said, but in order to properly assess the damage, train power wasn't fully restored until 6:10 a.m.

As of 6:45 a.m. all trains were running on their designated schedules, Gaffney said.