training
Crazy day! Dangerous day! Was on time this morning, but the trains were not running on Riverside line. Here's what Metrolink had to say:
Metrolink would like to extend our apologies to our Riverside Line passengers for the service delays this morning and last night. This morning, Riverside Line train 401 derailed due to an improperly lined switch at the Riverside-Downtown Station. The train had just completed loading passengers and had not cleared the platform when the derailment occurred. Passengers were transferred to train 403, the next scheduled departure from Riverside. The derailed train also prevented the departure of trains 405 and 407 which were also both canceled. Passengers were informed of the cancelations and directed to the 91 Line or to the San Bernardino Line as options. Passengers up the line were also informed of the cancelations. Train 409, the final morning departure on the Riverside Line was also delayed approximately one hour.
So I went over to Rancho, but on my way there, I was about 30 seconds behind a 4 car crash across all lanes of the 60. Everyone slammed on their brakes and we inched by. You could tell the cars had bounced off of each other before hitting the divider. Oy! I wanted to go hide under my blanket, but I made it to the station okay. The Riverside line was completely screwed so all the people went up to the other line and the train was beyond packed by the time we got past Covina!
Also, going to that hoop class last night with jennifatt saved me from other train problems!
Last night (Wednesday April 16) three Riverside Line trains were delayed by a malfunctioning switch on the Union Pacific Railroad just east of Industry station. The crew of train 406 (the 4:55 pm departure from Los Angeles) was instructed by the Union Pacific dispatcher to align the switch by hand but when the crew member observed the switch, he informed the dispatcher that he was unfamiliar with that type of switch and did not want to attempt to align it and possibly cause a greater delay. The dispatcher informed him that signal maintainance staff was on the way and would align the switch. Train 406 was delayed 67 minutes. Train 408 was delayed 50 minutes and train 410 was delayed 20 minutes due to waiting behind train 406.
This location was where a Union Pacific train derailed last week and had 33 cars leave the rails. The switch involved in that incident was replaced with a different type of switch of an unfamiliar type. Operations management concurs with train 406’s crew member prudent decision to wait for a signal maintainer rather than risk improperly aligning the switch and potentially causing further delay.
I feel so lucky to have made it in today at all!