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Post by 11ball on May 10, 2011 14:35:22 GMT -8
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Post by spokker on May 10, 2011 16:13:24 GMT -8
Metrolink is using a relatively long distance mode, commuter rail, to fulfill their relative short distance intracounty travel obligations. Running empty trains between Laguna Niguel and Fullerton does nothing to help intracounty travelers. Either extend the trains to LA or divert the money to bus service.
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Post by masonite on May 10, 2011 16:59:41 GMT -8
Metrolink is using a relatively long distance mode, commuter rail, to fulfill their relative short distance intracounty travel obligations. Running empty trains between Laguna Niguel and Fullerton does nothing to help intracounty travelers. Either extend the trains to LA or divert the money to bus service. I never understood this either. They have to coordinate this with LA County to get to Downtown LA or they should forget it. I'd like LA be able to pony up a little more to match the frequency. Otherwise, it seems like a pretty big waste.
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Post by bluelineshawn on May 10, 2011 18:02:57 GMT -8
It's not Metrolink, it's Orange County. They don't want the Measure M money used to get OC riders back and forth to downtown LA even though that's where most of their riders are headed. And they can't coordinate the LA part with LA because LA has no need to pay for extra trains back and forth to Norwalk.
There are a significant number of riders that make trips entirely within Orange County and maybe the new service will help that grow. I have my doubts though.
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Post by spokker on May 10, 2011 18:44:14 GMT -8
My mistake. I meant to say OCTA.
But yeah, this is where arbitrary lines on a map hinder regional mass transit. OC would do well to fund more trains to LA because it would benefit residents. It's a no brainer to extend the trains to LA and worth the effort to convince BNSF to allow them to.
Looking at individual stations, Fullerton is where a lot of people are getting on the train in the morning and getting off in the afternoon. Anaheim has some incoming riders who work 9-5's at Disneyland, but are there enough?
Orange is somewhat walkable. Santa Ana is another huge park and ride that is away from downtown Santa Ana proper. Tustin is a station I am quite familiar with as our cat's vet is there. It's just an unwalkable low-density corporate park away from downtown Irvine proper. Irvine is another huge park and ride and probably the busiest station in Orange County. This might be a decent jobs center (with the help of OCTA shuttle buses), but are people from Laguna Niguel and Fullerton just going to drive all the way to work instead of driving to a station and parking? That's what I'm talking about when I talk about distances.
Laguna Niguel is probably the least accessible station in Orange County and even if you wanted to go to the mall which is right there, it takes a while to walk because the streets are so pedestrian unfriendly.
San Juan Capistrano would be a destination but the trains won't stop there. Extending the trains to Oceanside might bring in commuters working in Irvine, but then OC would cry about paying for transportation to/from North SD County.
This whole project is a mess. Metrolink is commuter rail and does a great job at it. OCTA should be careful not to treat it like light rail.
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Post by 11ball on May 11, 2011 11:05:38 GMT -8
There are a significant number of riders that make trips entirely within Orange County and maybe the new service will help that grow. I have my doubts though. Shawn, I agree that most of us need to get to LAUS. But at least we have a consolation prize. I may not be able to get to LAUS on one individual train and need to get a transfer to Amtrak somewhere along the line - but at least Orange, Tustin and LN become useful to use for almost the entire day. I don't mind cooling my heels waiting at Fullerton. At least for me, It's an acceptable trade off. DS
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Post by masonite on May 11, 2011 13:47:42 GMT -8
There are a significant number of riders that make trips entirely within Orange County and maybe the new service will help that grow. I have my doubts though. Shawn, I agree that most of us need to get to LAUS. But at least we have a consolation prize. I may not be able to get to LAUS on one individual train and need to get a transfer to Amtrak somewhere along the line - but at least Orange, Tustin and LN become useful to use for almost the entire day. I don't mind cooling my heels waiting at Fullerton. At least for me, It's an acceptable trade off. DS Why would you not just look at the schedule and get on the train going to LAUS instead of one that ends at the Orange Curtain? This doesn't make any sense, unless someone just shows up at a station not knowing the schedule and just happens to enjoy waiting at a station farther north for a transfer to a LAUS train instead of just hanging out at the station farther south for the same train.
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Post by LAofAnaheim on May 11, 2011 13:51:30 GMT -8
Why would you not just look at the schedule and get on the train going to LAUS instead of one that ends at the Orange Curtain? This doesn't make any sense, unless someone just shows up at a station not knowing the schedule and just happens to enjoy waiting at a station farther north for a transfer to a LAUS train instead of just hanging out at the station farther south for the same train. Because the 91 line (between LAUS and Riverside) does not go any further south than Fullerton station on a weekday....
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Post by James Fujita on May 11, 2011 15:18:09 GMT -8
well, it is flawed, but it's also Orange County's money. Los Angeles doesn't really have a say in it.
I still would have preferred a light rail line, but they rejected that. Or even the Irvine streetcar idea which kept getting floated but never got off the ground. Sometimes you have to take what you can get.
Too much of Orange County still thinks of itself as small-town suburban even if that image is way outdated, and that plays into anti-rail NIMBYism. Metrolink slips underneath the NIMBY radar for some reason (because the tracks are already there, probably).
If OCTA promotes this (and each new train on a route is effectively a rolling billboard for the service) then it might do okay, and that would be a positive for Metrolink in general.
If not... then OCTA will have to go back to the drawing board, and maybe then they'll be more open to sending more trains to L.A.
Here's hoping for the former.
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Post by 11ball on May 11, 2011 17:39:20 GMT -8
Why would you not just look at the schedule and get on the train going to LAUS instead of one that ends at the Orange Curtain? This doesn't make any sense, unless someone just shows up at a station not knowing the schedule and just happens to enjoy waiting at a station farther north for a transfer to a LAUS train instead of just hanging out at the station farther south for the same train. BNSF has set limits to how many trains can be run until they get improvements in place like grade separations and so on. OCTA was hoping this line would go to as far north as Buena Park until BNSF nixed that idea. That's why Fullerton is the northern end. I'd be happy is they resurrect the late evening run from LAUS that left at 8:45 that got axed in the last round of cutbacks. Just change the departure time to around 9:15 - 9:20 since Amtrak leaves every evening at 8:30 and 10:10. I'm hoping Metrolink doesn't need to obtain permission from BNSF since this run just replaces the axed train. DS
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Post by 11ball on May 23, 2011 18:30:14 GMT -8
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Post by Justin Walker on Jun 15, 2011 19:49:04 GMT -8
Saw the new OC Metrolink schedules posted at the Santa Ana station yesterday. Unfortunately, the train numbers are a little hard to read from these photos. Weekday Schedule (effective July 5th). Includes six new trips (trains 640, 641, 642, 643, 644, and 645): Weekend Schedule (effective July 2nd):
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Post by 11ball on Jun 20, 2011 18:37:02 GMT -8
I saw the hard to read schedule today at Irvine.
For the weekdays starting on July 5, there are 6 new trains scheduled from mid-afternoon to evening.
Train 641 Oceanside to Fullerton 2:47 Train 640 Fullerton to LN 4:50 Train 643 LN to Fullerton 5:50 Train 642 Fullerton to LN 7:45 train 645 LN to Fullerton 8:50 train 644 Fullerton to Oceanside 10:00
I assume the time listed is departure time.
In addition, there was some additional details about #644 as it pertains to the Angel games which I didn't bother to read.
The bigger change is weekend service. Weekend service has been about nil for the OC line. There appears to be several more trains with some of the new trains going south to Oceanside or SJC (not just LN). That service start July 2.
I haven't had time to see if there is a link.
DS
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Post by Justin Walker on Jun 20, 2011 19:19:30 GMT -8
I haven't had time to see if there is a link. DS New July 2nd schedules for have been posted on Metrolink's website.
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Post by spokker on Jun 27, 2011 19:59:44 GMT -8
The bigger change is weekend service. Weekend service has been about nil for the OC line. There appears to be several more trains with some of the new trains going south to Oceanside or SJC (not just LN). That service start July 2. They are simply restoring the OC weekend trains that they cut before. This is welcome news. The $10 weekend pass also starts this weekend and coupled with the restored trains, it is the greatest deal in Southern California. They didn't even mention it in the summary of changes.
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Post by thanks4goingmetro on Aug 16, 2011 9:51:08 GMT -8
Metrolink is using a relatively long distance mode, commuter rail, to fulfill their relative short distance intracounty travel obligations. Running empty trains between Laguna Niguel and Fullerton does nothing to help intracounty travelers. Either extend the trains to LA or divert the money to bus service. I only have just begun to make use of MetroLink as a reverse commuter to Irvine for work and I must say that the additional trips in Orange County funded by OCTA is amazing! Why? If I miss the 5:17pm train from Tustin Station to LAUS the wait for next OC Line to LAUS is more than 2 hours. The intra Orange County Line trips will allow one to connect to another train at Fullerton. In my case, I miss the 5:17 train at Tustin, I wait around 40 minutes for the OC Line to Fullerton, change platforms and wait 10 minutes then continue my trip to LAUS on 91 Line train. Over all trip time is 1h20m versus 59m on direct trip, much better than waiting around for 2 to 3 hours. I've noticed that quite a few are making this connection and the conductor announces that this connection can be made from Fullerton.
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