Witnesses Report Individual Crawling Under Trains at Orange County Stations

Trespasser waits until before train departs before moving under train 

Metrolink passengers and outdoor station cameras have witnessed an individual crawling under a stopped train twice recently at Orange County Line stations with an apparent intent to injure himself. This individual waits until just before the train departs the station before moving under the train. He was severely injured both times and taken to a hospital by local law enforcement after each incident. These incidents are currently under investigation.   

  

Railroad right-of-way and station platform safety is critical to the protection of passengers and community members – it is illegal to be on the railroad right-of-way as this conduct can be lethal.  If this type of behavior is observed, please notify a law enforcement officer, station personnel or Metrolink employee, or call 911. For more information on railroad safety, please visit Metrolink’s website and California Operation Lifesaver.

In response to Passengers…Brrrrr, Ice Age Train Ride

Metrolink has been receiving a higher number of “cold train” reports from our passengers this year compared to the winter season last year. These comments have been coming in through calls to our customer service center and through our new media channels like Twitter.

This matter was brought to the attention of our Mechanical Services Contractor and we have requested that the temperature control rheostat be set to the “Warmer” position on our cars.

As part of the PM (periodic maintenance) process at the Metrolink Central Maintenance Facility, the HVAC systems are checked regularly to ensure the heating, cooling and ventilation phases are working correctly.

In addition, staff advised our forces at the outlying points where our trains spend the night to close the side doors on the cars as soon as their inspections and cleaning of the cars is completed during cold weather to keep them as warm as possible for morning commuters.

We hope these efforts will help keep our riders comfortable on their daily Metrolink commute.

Hey! Why is there a car missing on my train?

As many of our passengers have experienced, there have been recurring delays on San Bernardino Line train 307 over the past few weeks. A few years ago, in response to increases in ridership, Metrolink purchased several cars from New Jersey Transit (NJT) and added them to the fleet where they operate along with our existing passenger cars. While the NJT cars are generally compatible with our existing cars, one aspect of the NJT car’s design makes it difficult to operate their doors. When stopping at a station, the conductor has to operate the NJT car doors from the Bombardier cars adjacent to the NJT car and then walk to the cab car to assist passengers boarding at the disabled access station ramp. This process results in delays departing from stations.

Metrolink has now removed the New Jersey Transit car from train 307 and exchange it for a Bombardier bi-level car, eliminating any delays due to the operation of the NJT car’s doors.

In addition, Metrolink staff has been actively working on identifying any opportunities for efficiencies in the Metrolink system and after reviewing ridership data, its been determined that there is an opportunity to reduce one car each from four of the train cycles Metrolink currently operates. A cycle is a combination of trips a train set makes each day. Metrolink operates 32 different train cycles each weekday.

As Metrolink’s order of 117 new passenger cars begins to arrive at the end of February, additional cars that have been leased from other agencies will be returned. The latest look at the allocation of cars has identified an opportunity to send back three cars that have been leased from the Altamont Commuter Express service in Northern California now.

The plan calls for the elimination of one car on 4 train cycles as follows:

Cycle 9: Trains 307-302-319-328
Cycle 14: Trains 907-904-320-303-682-687
Cycle 16: Trains 684-804-807-685
Cycle 22: Trains 404-707-334-309

For example, Cycle 9 starts as train 307 departing San Bernardino at 5:54 am arriving at Union Station at 7:20 am. The same train set now departs Union Station at 7:45 am as train 302 towards San Bernardino. This train then departs from San Bernardino at 9:50 am as train 319 to Union Station. Later in the day, the same train set leaves Union Station to San Bernardino as train 328. More on train cycles to come in a future post.

All of the 4 identified cycles are currently comprised of a set of 6 cars. Reducing the number of cars per cycle allows us to return the leased ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) equipment resulting in monthly lease and fuel savings.

This plan is taking effect immediately. The performance will be evaluated and any adjustments made if necessary.