Amtrak shares Metrolink tracks involved in fatal crash
In addition to Metrolink and freight lines, the busy stretch of track in Chatsworth where Friday’s commuter train crash killed at least six people also services two of Amtrak’s busiest runs. Amtrak hasn’t yet returned phone calls about how this affects service.
The tracks carry a key leg of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service, which has 12 daily round trips between San Diego and Los Angeles, including five extending to Santa Barbara and two continuing to San Luis Obispo.
Amtrak also uses the track for its 1,400-mile Coast Starlight, between Los Angeles’ Union Station and Seattle.
It was uncertain Friday just how long those routes would be affected by Friday’s crash between a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train near Chatsworth. Travelers can monitor service alerts from Amtrak at the company’s website.
The crash comes after record ridership this summer.
More than 300,000 passengers rode the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains in July (San Diego-Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo), a 12% increase compared with the same month last year. More than 9.3 million people each year get on or off an Amtrak train in California, second only to New York’s 10.3 million.
The Pacific Surfliner, which carries more than 2 million people each year between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, is Amtrak’s third-busiest route.
The West Coast on-time record has been abysmal. For instance, the Starlight has been late more than half the time, according to Amtrak statistics covering the last few years.
Amtrak blames more than 80% of its delays on commercial railroads, mostly freight, which own virtually all of its tracks. Passenger trains stop often to let freight trains go by; there are also breakdowns, track work and other foul-ups to contend with. Union Pacific handles the coming and going of trains on the track.
– Chris Erskine and Jane Engle, Los Angeles Times staff writers
[Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times]
4 Comments on “Amtrak shares Metrolink tracks involved in fatal crash”
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September 12th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
A picture shows that the Metrolink engine telescoped into the first passenger car quite a long way. Telescoping of cars was one of the most horrible aspects of nineteenth century train wrecks. I thought modern passenger cars were constructed so as to resist telescoping. Is there a fault in design or construction here that contributed to the injuries and deaths?
September 13th, 2008 at 8:46 am
This should have never happened, and I think that dractic actions need to be taken to insure that this never happends again, or you will lose the peope’s trust, and the people’s money, because as I was planning a trip from Vt to San Diego CA by train a family of 5 people, and now after yesterday’s train crash, I am not sure if I want to take that chance of a train accident happening.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Catherine,
Train accidents are dramaatic by their very nature, yet many more people die on the highways, unsung and unheralded because they die by ones and small numbers and all the time. Do not cancel your train trip because of one accident — study the WHOLE picture, that is: how many people DON’T die in train crashes, but make it to their destination just fine.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
WOW i live like in a town near the crash and i feel horablle 4 all the people who died and hope there families are ok and god bless you!