Bustitution this weekend

[bluelineshawn]

You might want to avoid the blue line this weekend although I'm going to check out the goings on. ;D

Rail Service Alerts
Metro Blue Line
Attention Metro Riders -- Metro Blue Line Track Repairs
Beginning Friday Night March 30 thru Sunday April 1 Only

Beginning Friday night at 9pm March 30 and continuing thru Sunday, April 1, Metro crews will be removing the former Union Pacific railroad crossing between East 25th St. and East Adams Bl., where it crosses the Metro Blue Line.

From Friday night at 9pm to Saturday night at 9:00pm, both the northbound and southbound Blue Line tracks will be out of service. Buses will be used to transport passengers around the closure. Customers should allow a minimum of 30 minutes additional time and expect delays.

From Saturday night at 9:00pm all day Sunday, one track will be open for trains. Customers should allow additional time and expect delays.

On Friday, the last northbound train prior to service disruption will leave Transit Mall at 8:01pm (Washington at 8:46pm). The last southbound train prior to service disruption will leave 7th St./Metro Center at 8:26pm (Vernon at 8:38pm).

After the trains listed above, buses will be used to provide service between San Pedro, Washington and Vernon Stations.

• All Northbound passengers will get off trains at Vernon and board buses at Vernon and Long Beach Bl. (NW corner). Buses will travel to San Pedro Station (10-15 minutes) and Washington Station (15-20 minutes total time from Vernon).

• All Southbound passengers will get off trains at San Pedro and board buses on Washington Bl. at the station crosswalk (west end of station, south side of street). Buses will travel to Washington Station (5 minutes) and Vernon Station (8-10 minutes total time from San Pedro), and board trains to continue the trip south.

• All passengers using Washington Station will ride buses (Washington-Vernon-San Pedro for northbound and Washington-Vernon for southbound).

On Saturday Trains will operate every 15 minutes in the morning, 12 minutes mid-day and 20 minutes in the evening.

On Sunday, April 1, all trains will operate every 20 minutes, beginning southbound from 7th St./Metro Center at 5:05am and northbound from Transit Mall at 4:47am until the close of service.

Metro realizes the inconvenience all Blue Line customers will face during this period. We ask for your patience and understanding.

For routing assistance, please call 1.800.COMMUTE.

www.mta.net/riding_metro/system_delays/default.htm

[tonyw79sfv]

Looks like they're finally taking out the level junction crossing between the Washington and Vernon stations. You can definitely hear when the train crosses that junction and most times the Blue Line has to slow for it. The tracks that crosses there leads to the Exposition line towards the west, but that ROW east of I-110 is already taken up for business parking; with the decision to route Metro Expo Line on Flower a year ago, I guess the decided it was high time to take that junction out.

[bobdavis]

This activity received quite a bit of coverage on the "Trainorders.com" website. The crossing in question is the remnant of Pacific Electric's Amoco interlocker. Going west was the "Santa Monica Air Line" (soon to be reborn as the Expo Line); going east was Butte St. Yard, a major interchange point between PE and the other railroads.

[Elson]

I thought "bustitution" meant...oh never mind.

[bluelineshawn]

bobdavis said:

This activity received quite a bit of coverage on the "Trainorders.com" website...

Thanks for the heads up. That's an interesting thread.

[bluelineshawn]

Notices were posted (spanish/english)...recorded announcements were repeated (english only)...MTA personnel were on the platforms to provide assistance...still many passengers were very confused. Many stayed on the train despite repeated announcements that they were at the last stop. Several waited on platforms for trains that would never come. One guy complained to no one in particular that the MTA needed to do a much better job and that there should have been announcements. I tried to explain to him what was going on, but it was no use. He had headphones on and could not hear me!?!!

Really the MTA did a GREAT job! Much, much better than similar situations that I've seen in the past. Here's a few pictures showing the days events.

[Tony Fernandez]

Wow, what a mess.

[James Fujita]

making changes to a rail system such as this is sort of like getting your house painted or redoing your kitchen. it's a big mess and a pain in the neck, but hopefully the finished results will be worth it. admittedly, removing a crossing isn't much, but it is an improvement.

this sort of thing will probably happen dozens of times in the future. obviously, the Blue Line will be affected when the Expo Line construction gets seriously underway, too.