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Broken Red Line Train + 400 Passengers + Rush Hour
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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.
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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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