Clean up efforts continued in Dixmoor Monday after a freight train derailed Friday morning at 140th Street and Spaulding Avenue.
Mayor Fitzgerald Roberts said access to 145th Street near Spaulding Avenue remained closed Monday due to heavy damage from the derailment of 17 train cars, including 16 autoracks and one intermodal car. CSX crews have cleared the road of the derailed cars and are expected to repair all damage to village roads, Roberts said.
“Thank God there wasn’t anybody out at the time it happened and there wasn’t anybody injured,” Roberts said. They mayor said is concerned about local railroad infrastructure because of another derailment in Chicago Ridge earlier this month.
A CSX spokesperson said the train cars derailed at about 4:45 a.m. Friday, blocking crossings at Robey Avenue, Lincoln Avenue and Western Avenue, which have since reopened. Freight service resumed on the line over the weekend, the spokesperson said.
In Chicago Ridge, 10 train cars derailed between Ridgeland Avenue and Central Avenue Feb. 11, closing several major roadways and disrupting Metra train service in the south suburbs. Nobody was injured in the derailment and the train did not carry hazardous materials, police said.
A Metra spokesperson reported damage to Metra train tracks and CSX tracks and signaling systems and Chicago Ridge Mayor Jack Lind said the village alerted local schools and hospitals of the derailment to ensure buses and ambulances could get around the affected area.
Both the Dixmoor and Chicago Ridge derailments remained under investigation as of Monday, the CSX spokesperson said.
“CSX prioritizes the safety of our workforce and the communities where we operate,” the spokesperson said. “We have confirmed that each event was caused by distinct factors unrelated to location or infrastructure. Further updates will be shared as more information becomes available.”
Ted Greener, senior vice president of communications for the Association of American Railroads, said they cannot comment on specific incidents or operations specific to an individual railroad but said most freight train derailments are minor, low-speed incidents that occur in rail yards rather than on mainline tracks.
“Federal reporting rules also inflate derailment counts by requiring railroads to log even minor events, such as misaligned couplers or switching movements that cause limited damage,” Greener said.
The derailment of 25 cars on a Canadian National Railway freight train in Matteson in June 2024 led to the evacuation of the village’s historic Main Street. The train was carrying plastic pellets that posed no hazard, and there were no fires or injuries.
Jessica Kahanek, assistant vice president of communications at the Association of American Railroads, told the Daily Southtown at the time that while train derailments containing potentially hazardous substances pose a safety threat, they are not common.
“It’s important for folks to realize they are rare, rail is the safest way to move goods over land, particularly hazmat,” Kahanek said.
There were 878 train derailments in 2025, 65 of which happened in Illinois, according to Federal Railroad Administration data. In 2024, the department reported 1,101 derailments, 74 of them in Illinois.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
