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Photo by Simon Shek via Flickr
On Tuesday night at 5:23 p.m., a train heading towards the Valley got stuck between Hollywood and Universal City. For 80 minutes, one half of the tracks was out of service while Metro engineers tried to figure out what stopped the rush-hour train with around 400 passengers aboard. Metro officials called the situation "extremely rare," but reports from frequent riders say a 40-minute delay happened on Monday evening as well.
Eventually, a "rescue train" was deployed to bring the stuck passengers to their Valley destinations. When Metro "rescue" personnel arrived on the other tracks, they matched up the doors and carefully transfered patrons from one train to another.
Meanwhile at the Hollywood/Vine station, the platform filled with people waiting for a train to come that by schedule should have been arriving at least every 12-minutes. According to Metro, announcements were blasted through station P.A. systems and a notification was displayed on the new LCD screens in rotation with the usual announcements. According to witnesses at the Vine station, no such message was displayed and when the audio announcements were heard over the speakers, what was said was unintelligible. However, "slight delay" was heard in the mix, which made people curious as they waited for over an hour.
Some passengers began to look for options on Hollywood Blvd., but only a bus bridge was enacted between Hollywood/Highland and the Valley according to Metro. One man was seen crying while talking on the phone as he missed an appointment due to the delay. Another customer noted that these "slight interruptions" were a lot more than slight.
When all was said and done and the Metro Red Line began to resemble some sense of normalcy, all a train conductor could say to people as they finally entered the train was "sorry for the delay, thanks for your patience." 80-minutes? Many would agree that is beyond testing patience.
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rail line to the sea sounds like an awesome idea right about now
leave it to LA to make you want to stick to your car...
These sorts of delays are a nearly daily occurrence in the MUNI system in San Francisco. Try waiting on a platform with tourists (that don't know where they are going), commuters (who really just want to get home in a reasonable amount of time) and old ladies with pink plastic bags (that like to jack knife the legs of passengers that board the train before them).
Every. Single. Day.
Metro trains and platforms are clean, air conditioned and comfortable compared to what San Francisco passes off.
I left work in hopes of catching the 6:20 train @ 7th/Metro. There were definitely no announcements made or posted on the TV screen about a delay in service. It wasn't until I was crammed inside of the packed train (which was 10 minutes late) that the driver told us of the one that was broken down and causing issues with service. The ride that normally takes about 20 minutes (to the Hollywood/Highland station) ended up lasting an hour.
I can't complain too much though, I used to take the Blue Line in the morning and it would be delayed at least once a week.
Mass transit has its problems, like every other form of transportation... that being said. I'd much rather to be inconvenienced for an hour rarely, then be stuck in mind numbing traffic every day.
I eventually moved into downtown instead of taking the blue line from long beach for a year or so, the constant delays were just ridiculous.
I'm not aggravated about the hour it took to get home. This is probably the 3rd time in a business week that the train has been delayed and they have failed to inform passengers of WHY there is a delay.
You have to understand: when the train is at a stop for an extended amount of time and you are bottled up with 50 others in a car or 100 people on a platform, the atmosphere begins to get tense. The crazy people getting even crazier, which causes everyone to begin to shuffle and become nervous.
If you do the simple task of telling the passengers that there is an issue and, more importantly, how long it will take/what the issue is - the riders will be a little more relaxed knowing that it isn't serious. Hopefully, they will patiently wait it out since they know what's going on.
Emoney is exactly right, a large part of the problem here is a lack of communication. Really, it's that simple.
Earlier this year, the fact that the only way people knew that there was a fire on the red line, therefore delaying service during rush hour, was via the Los Angeles Fire Department and not Metro themselves is a major problem.
When traffic is jammed severely, Caltrans and CHP hand out a Sig Alert so people can plan accordingly. When something major happens on a Metro rail line, Metro officials are silent.
There are a lot of great people at Metro, but the machine that is the organization itself is human-less and has no community building around it. To their credit, they are trying new things like the Imagine program and the online chats, but the best thing going for them right now is their Metro Westside Extension Facebook page. It's the first time I've really felt connected with Metro from a non-press relations side of things.
Now if they'd just Twitter the arrival times and get on with accurate communication, honest communication and a commitment to monitoring the level of service, evaluating the level of service and allowing themselves to be held accountable for their performance.
Just like regular folks, rewarded based on results! Often harsh but always fair!
@emoney I agree. Lack of communication sucks. There is the same problem in NYC, and we have had the subway here for over 100 years! I've been stuck on many a subway car where all you receive is some sort of cryptic message that can be deciphered over the PA system.
Hopefully, being as LA is a newer system, they can sort this type of problem out easily... I mean, I have often wondered, how can any transit system not think informing the riders about an issue in a timely matter is a good idea?
This is why they HAVE GOT to double-track the Subway to the Sea. Activists haven't been loud enough about this one lately to Metro. Whenever they do repairs or have any hiccups in the system like last night, it'll screw up more than just a thousand people...
@matswaltin Yeah, I was surprised they didn't build the red line with local and express tracks. It would be good to have express service between some stations... and also, when there is a problem, the express tracks can be used to divert traffic.
Just. Like. Home.
I sympathise. Here's hoping Metro keep this sort of thing on the down-low.
I was on a train that got stuck behind the broken down train. I actually didn't mind it much since I was sitting down and was reading "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" (great book), but the announcements were hard to understand. I did hear "momentarily" used a lot, but I doubt a half hour is momentary to a lot of people. Thankfully I only needed to get off at the next stop.
What's going to happen when people are held hostage on a train for more than half an hour is people are going to self evacuate. See this example from Chicago. You need to make announcements about delays, and you need to make them every ten minutes. And if the train is stuck in the next segment of track, you hold the following trains at a station instead of in the middle of the track so that folks can get air and leave if they choose to.