Red and Purple Line service suspended at Union Station

Posted Dec 13, 2011 by in Service Alerts
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UPDATE, 8 P.M.: All trains are now running.

Some key updates from Metrolink:

Any @MetrolinkRIV passengers that missed RIV Line Train 412 please go to Patsaouras Transit Plaza Platform 2 for MTA bus to RIV tonight.

Any @MetrolinkOC passengers that missed the OC Line Train 608 please take Amtrak 592 at 8:30pm they are making all @Metrolink stops tonight.

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As many of you know by now, Red and Purple Line service was suspended earlier this evening into and out of Union Station due to a suspicious package found aboard a train.

The best way to get the latest news on your cell phones is to follow Metro’s Twitter feed.

Buses are shuttling passengers between the Civic Center station and Union Station.

Another travel tip from our Twitter feed:

Here are other alternates btwn Downtown-Union Sta. On Olive- take any 70′s bus. Hope- DASH B. Broadway- 40, 740, 745. Main- 733, DASH D. ^ST

 

And just a few minutes ago, this from the Sheriff’s Department Twitter feed:

630PM,Tues, Red Line subway at track level is the only area of #UnionStation currently evacuated @MetroLosAngeles susp. package #LASD
@MetroLosAngeles RedLine incident began at #UnionStation at 4:55PM,Tues. #LASD BombSquad at train & track level. Thank U for cooperation

Shadow retires: Service planner’s Guide Dog was also systems tester, poster girl, hospitality greeter, tour guide for Metro

Posted Dec 13, 2011 by in Employees, Inside Metro, Transportation News
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Photos courtesy of Access Services, Inc.

  • I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs. – James Thurber, humorist and cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine and a great lover of dogs.

Here at Metro, that would be Shadow, the 10-year-old black Labrador who recently retired as a Guide Dog to Agustin Moreno, a systems analyst in service planning who’s been totally blind since the age of 16.

Shadow

Shadow wears her Metro employee badge for the last time.

A constant and unerring companion, Shadow seemed always at Moreno’s side since taking up the post in 2004.

At first, Shadow’s job description was strictly within the scope for a Guide Dog.

Whether it was on the elevator, in the cafeteria, on trips to bus or rail divisions, taking transit home to Highland Park or napping in Moreno’s cubicle on the 7th floor of Metro’s HQ, Shadow’s presence was calming, giving all of us a reassuring pause that grace and ease will get us to where we’re going.

It didn’t take long before Shadow’s attention to detail and expert assistance to Moreno caught the attention of managers looking for an eager upstart who could handle whatever they threw at her.

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Reason Foundation thumbs its nose at Metro; we thumb back!

Posted Dec 13, 2011 by in Policy & Funding
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YouTube Preview Image

The Reason Foundation — long-time critics of rail mass transit — put together the above video posted to YouTube last week. It’s amusing. It’s also a little factually challenged.

So in the spirit of fun, here goes:

•It’s about 29 miles by road — not 17 — from LAX to downtown Burbank, according to most of the maps that I consulted.

•To the dude in the video: if you seriously got from the LAX terminals to Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank using only buses and rail in 78 minutes, then you’re some kind of Jedi Knight of mass transit. That’s more like a two-hour trip — owing in part to the bus between LAX and the Green Line’s Aviation station.

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Transportation headlines, Tuesday, Dec. 13

Posted Dec 13, 2011 by in Transportation Headlines
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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.

Has the sun set on suburban sprawl in California? (Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog)

A new study by the Urban Land Institute confirms what many of us already know — that city sprawl is passe. The study finds that Generations X and Y, which will dominate market demand in the coming decades, don’t want to live in far flung housing developments that require a car and long commutes to work. Where do they want to live? Near transit. (We like this study.) For personal thoughts on this very topic, take a look at the newest Metro Motion. It contains interviews with twentysomethings who have abandoned their cars in favor of what they consider to be a more interesting urban lifestyle … without a car and with mass transit. 

Driving frequency is dropping. But why? (New Republic)

Americans have sustained annualized driving drops for six consecutive months, the longest sustained drop since 2008 when gas prices first launched over $4 a gallon. This also comes at a time when the country is showing some positive economic growth — two percent annualized growth in the third quarter — and a string of positive, private sector job reports. Can consistently high oil prices be blamed, or is something more systemic and complex at work?

How is driving rewarded over taking the bus? (New York Times)

Due to a fear of making anything permanent or convenient in the tax code, a parking vs. taking mass transit parity of the last couple of years is scheduled to evaporate Dec. 31. After that, unless legislators manage to patch the rules once more, parkers will get to set aside $240 a month in 2012, while mass transit riders will be allowed just $125. Need we point out that this would not be very supportive of efforts to discourage use of fossil fuels for the good of the environment. Nor does it discourage our country’s dependence on foreign oil.

Two year anniversary of the Silver Line today

Posted Dec 13, 2011 by in Feedback, Go Metro, Metro Lifestyle
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The Silver Line debuted on this day in 2009, running seven days a week between the El Monte Station in the San Gabriel Valley, downtown Los Angeles and the Artesia Transit Center in the South Bay. (See the map after the jump).

The bus makes that trip in under an hour, thanks in part to using the carpool lanes on the 10 and 110 freeways. Before the Silver Line came along, bus service along the 10 and 110 freeways was on separate lines — the Silver Line tied it all together, complete with stops throughout downtown L.A.

How has the Silver Line performed? Pretty well. On an average weekday in November, there were 10,648 boardings on the line, a 42 percent increase over Nov. 2010. Average weekend boardings in November totaled 5,858, a 55 percent increase over a year earlier.

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The art of transit

Posted Dec 13, 2011 by in The Art of Transit
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photo by Spider_Dude, via Camera+

Cool shot taken with the iPhone’s Camera+ app on a northbound Line 96 bus on the northbound Pasadena Freeway.

To submit a photo for the Art of Transit, post it to Metro’s Flickr group, email it to sourcemetro@gmail.com or Tweet it to @metrolosangeles with an #artoftransit hashtag. Many of the photos we’ve featured can be seen in these galleries on Flickr.

Metrolink offers safe alternative to ‘extreme weather’ commute

Posted Dec 12, 2011 by in Safety, Transportation News
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With a potential snow storm in the forecast for the Antelope Valley, Metrolink is actively monitoring the weather and railroad conditions. Prompted by a National Weather Service advisory, Metrolink has issued a word of caution and safety advice for the area’s commuters.

Here’s the news release:

Metrolink Trains Offer Transportation Options During Extreme Weather
Los Angeles – As winter weather moves into Southern California bringing freezing temperatures, rain and snow in some areas, the region’s drivers can park their car and hop on a Metrolink train to bypass the conditions on the roadways. Metrolink trains will continue to provide a safe, reliable transportation alternative as the severe weather conditions close some roadways and bring traffic on others to a halt.

For more information on Metrolink service and schedules, please visit www.metrolinktrains.com

FTA releases Civil Rights compliance review of Metro

Posted Dec 12, 2011 by in Policy & Funding
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The Federal Transit Administration on Monday released its Civil Rights Title VI compliance review of Metro; the review can be downloaded here as a Word document.

The review found that Metro did not fully follow federal regulations and guidance when the agency made service and fare changes. The review dates back to 2009.

Here is the corrective action plan that Metro has assembled in response to the review and has sent to the FTA, which helps fund some Metro projects and programs and therefore conducts periodic reviews. And here is a report from Metro staff to the agency’s Board of Directors.

The release of the compliance review is the reason that Metro decided Friday to postpone service changes that were supposed to go into effect Sunday. Agency officials said that some of those changes need further analysis to ensure they followed FTA rules.

Below is the statement that Metro released about the FTA’s review on Friday, when the Los Angeles Times first reported it.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently audited Metro for compliance with federal Title VI Civil Rights regulations. The review is similar to those conducted at other major transit agencies around the country as FTA increases its focus on Title VI with the expectation that the transit industry must do a better job of compliance.

The FTA audit of Metro was not an investigation to determine the merit of any specific discrimination complaints filed against Metro. However, it did find deficiencies with the methodologies and processes that Metro uses to assess impacts of fare and service changes on minorities and low-income people.

Metro is working closely with FTA to ensure that it is in full compliance with all federal civil rights regulations. These apply to instances where Metro raises or even lowers fares, such as recent action to shave a dollar off the day pass price, cutting or adding bus or rail service. There are numerous technical and procedural regulations imposed by the federal government that have led to some confusion not only in Los Angeles County but across the nation. The FTA, which has audited Metro in the past without finding fault, has recently clarified the requirements.

Last May the Metro Board of Directors approved a budget that reassigned the agency’s Civil Rights unit to the CEO’s office and created a new full-time Civil Rights compliance officer position that reports to the CEO. Since the Civil Rights compliance officer was hired in September 2011, he has been working with Metro executives, sector governing councils, the FTA and others to thoroughly review and modify all Metro policies and procedures or adopt new ones as appropriate. This effort is well underway. Many of the changes should be in place by March. The remaining issues identified by the FTA audit involve improving communication with customers who have limited English proficiency and these should be resolved within a year. In addition, all Metro executives and staff and consultants involved in any aspect of Title VI will be retrained so they have a thorough understanding of all Civil Rights regulations and will be held accountable for full compliance.