Fatal accident involving Blue Line

To follow-up our earlier posts about the accident Friday afternoon on the Blue Line light rail: the woman who was struck by the train died.

Here’s a link to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

UPDATE, 5 p.m. –Metro officials have the following information:

At 1:17 pm, a southbound Metro Blue Line train struck and killed an elderly female pedestrian at the Wilmington Grade Crossing just north of the Imperial/Wilmington Blue Line Station. The accident, now under investigation, occurred at the crosswalk, where there are currently crossing gates. No other injuries were reported.  Rail operations supervisors, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded to the scene, and single track operations were established between Florence and Imperial Stations.  Both tracks were released at 2:17 p.m. Northbound trains were delayed by approximately 15 minutes. Normal service has resumed at this time.

Blue Line, rail safety

Blue Line back on schedule

Blue Line back on schedule. No more delays.

Service restored on Blue Line but still delays

Service has been restored on both tracks of the Blue Line, following an accident at Imperial/Wilmington/Rosa Parks Station. But northbound commuters should expect 15-minute delays between Transit Mall and  Imperial stations.

Accident at Imperial/Wilmington — Blue Line delays

At about 1:17 pm, a southbound Blue Line train struck a person at Imperial/Wilmington Station. LAPD, LAFD, LA Sheriff’s and rescue ambulance are on the scene. Trains are single tracking around the accident. Commuters should expect at least 20-minute delays.    

405 widening project presentation now online

A community meeting was held Thursday evening at the Skirball Center for the 405 widening project that will add an HOV-lane for 10 miles over the Sepulveda Pass. It’s a monster project with a billion-dollar pricetag that will soon begin construction and is scheduled to be complete in 2013.

Here’s a link to an 18-page presentation on the project that was shown to audience members at the meeting. For those who have been following the project, there’s nothing new here, but the presentation does provide a basic overview of the work to be done.

When the HOV lane is complete, there will be continuous carpool lanes on the 405’s entire journey through Los Angeles County. I posted Caltrans’ most recent map of the L.A. County HOV network after the jump.

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Blue Line Accident — Expect Delays

The Blue Line is single tracking from Florence to Imperial, around an accident at Wilmington crossing.  Expect 20 minute delays. Update will follow.

Go Metro Weekends, Transit Accessible Fun – Eastside Edition

Go Metro Weekends is The Source’s weekly guide to having a great weekend in L.A. without a car. All events are easily accessible (within a half mile walk) by Metro bus and rail lines, and we make sure any night time events listed are served by Metro’s owl service (unless otherwise noted). Have an event you’d like us to include? Shoot us an email at thesource@metro.net. Time and space constraints limit us from listing every accessible event in this city, but this curated list represents what we think is cool and easy to get to.

In celebration of the Gold Line Eastside Extension’s first week in service, I’m making sure to include events along the route, they’ll be highlighted in gold for emphasis.
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Eastside, events, film festival, Giant Robot, ice skating, Japanese American National Museum, Pershing Square, weekend

Transportation headlines, Friday, Nov. 20

I have a thing for Census Bureau data and so does Planetizen: They have a smart post today showing the 10 metropolitan areas where transit use increased the most between 2006 and 2008. Riverside was — to my surprise — one of them, as was Phoenix. When I think of both cities, I think cars, cars and more cars. In Riverside, officials say they tried to strategically add service to areas with the highest demand.

The Biking in LA blog takes the city of Los Angeles to task for not moving faster on implemeting its bike master plan — thereby joining a long list of other activists who have also taken the city to task. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this could be one of the most bike friendly cities in the world if there was the willpower among both politicans and the populace — and I’m not sure either are there yet.

Here’s a headline not on the list…if you’ve been wondering what’s up with the newly-installed turnstiles at some Metro rail stations, Leylie Aghili of USC’s Neon Tommy takes a long look at the turnstile effort and its cost. It’s a good explainer that concludes with this sentence: “And it remains to be seen whether the turnstile initiative will prove to be a money-saving security measure or one more bureaucratic blunder that pushes the California deficit into an even deeper shade of red.”

The rest of today’s transpo headlines, compiled by the always-resourceful Metro library, are after the jump.

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turnstiles

Blue Line construction this weekend

Just a reminder: there is no Blue Line light rail service this weekend in downtown Los Angeles between the Washington station and Metro Center. The reason: tracks from the under-construction Expo Line must be joined together with Blue Line tracks. The two lines will be sharing a short stretch of track in downtown.

Buses will carry Blue Line passengers between the Washington station and Metro Center/7th. But passengers should plan on delays that could be up to 40 minutes. Rail service in that area will cease tonight (Friday) at 9 p.m. and resume on Monday morning.

Here’s a recent press release with more info.

Blue Line, Expo Line