|
Post by bluelineshawn on Dec 28, 2009 20:54:21 GMT -8
Additional and improved gates sound like a no-brainer. Mark Ridley-Thomas should be made aware.
|
|
|
Post by jeisenbe on Dec 29, 2009 6:08:33 GMT -8
Wow, Gokhan and Spokker going at it just like Gokhan and Damien! Gokhan, you win major points in my book for arguing the side of safety. Can we get Fix Expo to change to Fix the Blue Line? We could all join up and agree on something. Spokker, you sure are consistent, but I think you are arguing for argument's sake. Some people will jump fences or evade automatic pedestrian gates, to be sure. But the 60 year old latino man who was killed recently at Vernon and many others would have been protected by the improvements Gokhan listed. If it costs even 5 million per crossing to put in all the improvements (and it should not be that expensive), the lives saved and injuries prevented would be cost-effective in less than 10 years.
Meanwhile, we might save billions of dollars otherwise spent on unnecessary grade separations, lawsuits and delays caused by the pubic perception that light rail is not safe.
|
|
|
Post by jeisenbe on Dec 29, 2009 6:14:12 GMT -8
Speaking of unnecessary grade separations, the city of Anaheim is trying to get all of us taxpayers to pay for a ridiculous 1 mile high speed rail subway through the old part of town, to save 5 single family homes and a couple parks and warehouses, at the cost of 1/2 billion dollars. If they really don't want the railway to be widened to 4 tracks, a 2-track alignment shared by Metrolink and HSR would work fine (Metrolink could electrify the Sylmar-OC route and buy EMUs!) for that short distance, for the first 10 or 20 years.
|
|
|
Post by erict on Dec 29, 2009 8:45:17 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by Gokhan on Dec 29, 2009 11:05:39 GMT -8
Will the Expo Line have pedestrian gates? I'm willing to trudge through documents and threads to find it, but do you have any designs or concept art of the Expo crossings readily available? CPUC didn't put Expo's application online, which would have the final design drawings. But I think so, yes. It would be pretty stupid for Expo not to design their crossings as safe as possible, given the opposition. Also, we have all seen the Farmdale design and we know pedestrian gates will be there. Moreover, Rick Thorpe and Joel Sandberg are the same people who built the Gold Line, and the Expo Line design should be just like the Gold Line design, with similar types of pedestrian-safety devices.
|
|
|
Post by spokker on Dec 29, 2009 12:28:27 GMT -8
jeisenbe, I agree 100% that pedestrian gates and more advanced safety features should be installed on the Blue Line. In fact I think the line is ready for a complete revitalization. The line is definitely showing its age. Fences are rusting, paint is peeling, years of tagging has added up. The station designs are very 90s looking and could use a complete update. However, based on my own observations at Willow, Compton, 103rd, Vernon and Washington Stations, the people who risk getting hit by trains simply don't care. This isn't a case where people are confused and don't know where to go. The majority of the time it's a case of people having no respect for the train. It's just amazing how someone can open up the swing gates and cross the tracks while the train is approaching the station. Several people who did this didn't even hurry up when the train blasted its horn at them. They just slowly strolled over the tracks as if it was the operator's job to wait for them. It's amazing to me that whenever I stop for flashing red lights and bells, whether the crossing is gated or not, and four or five people walk right past me and cross anyway. I almost feel a kind of peer pressure that I should be doing the same thing! There's just something different about the way it's done on the Blue Line compared to other light rail lines I've been on around the state. It isn't just people running to catch their train and taking an unnecessary risk. Bells and lights are ignored with an almost "F' you" attitude. It's quite fascinating. When you have a station in an area where half of the residents are below the poverty line, I wonder if people take more risks because they have less to lose. Who knows. Speaking of unnecessary grade separations, the city of Anaheim is trying to get all of us taxpayers to pay for a ridiculous 1 mile high speed rail subway through the old part of town The City of Anaheim isn't advocating that. A small collection of residents are.
|
|
|
Post by kenalpern on Dec 30, 2009 6:36:29 GMT -8
I can't help but wonder if, far into the future (although I wish it were NOT so far) we'll see a Blue Line Upgrade project to accommodate a high-ridership line that needs to look more like the Gold Line than what it currently is.
Whether such a project expands the underground portion of the future Downtown Connector for the street-running portions of the Blue and Expo Lines (for which TTC has advocated) is another discussion, but certainly a better Blue Line for the 21st Century is VERY much in order.
As to the morons who just defy death for a rail line that's been around a loooooong time, I suppose that no matter what is done to improve the Blue Line there will be idiots that can't be taught--although more signage and gates would be welcome.
|
|
|
Post by jeisenbe on Dec 31, 2009 22:15:44 GMT -8
Would capacity improvements for the blue/expo line thru downtown need to be in the LRTP to get funded? Or are changes to existing lines not part of the plan?
I wonder if we won't need more than 12 trains per hour on the blue line during rush hour, considering that the current trains are already pretty full. The tracks south of Metrocenter at least until Washington would need to be doubled or grade separated. This may need to happen as soon as 5 years after Expo Phase 2 is done, as ridership grows, and hopefully before peak oil!
Or will the design of the regional connector limit us to a train every 2 minutes (or every 4 minute for both lines) anyway?
|
|
|
Post by Gokhan on Feb 19, 2010 16:24:29 GMT -8
My coworker riding the Blue Line south texted me saying that the train might have run over a pedestrian at 103rd.
|
|
|
Post by bluelineshawn on Feb 19, 2010 16:41:40 GMT -8
That sucks. The blue line is so much faster than the gold line at crossings. I wonder if Expo will scoot by crossings at 55 mph like the blue line?
|
|
|
Post by bluelineshawn on Feb 19, 2010 16:46:29 GMT -8
On TV news now. The body is still under the train.
|
|
|
Post by Justin Walker on Feb 19, 2010 16:55:40 GMT -8
Reporting from onboard the Blue Line now: they made an announcement 5 min ago that a bus bridge was in effect between Firestone and Imperial/Wilmington. They immediately announced after that that all trains are now running through, albeit single-tracked and delayed.
|
|
|
Post by bluelineshawn on Feb 19, 2010 17:10:34 GMT -8
Reporting from onboard the Blue Line now: they made an announcement 5 min ago that a bus bridge was in effect between Firestone and Imperial/Wilmington. They immediately announced after that that all trains are now running through, albeit single-tracked and delayed. I bet that 7th/metro and Rosa Parks are a mess right about now!
|
|