Construction Updates

[bluelineshawn]

The Breda lrv seats are definitely narrower. I think that it's because the separator between the seats is smaller, so while it may be true that the seats themselves are the same size the net effect is that you are sitting an inch or two closer to the person next to you.

IIRC this was semi-acknowledged by someone from the MTA in the LA Times a month or so ago when they were going back and forth about the options not being exercised. They said something about not knowing if the smaller seats were an error by Breda or if the specs were incorrect.

Here's a picture of the Breda lrv seats:



And here is a blue line seat:

[bluelineshawn]

There were plenty of construction workers all over the line when I drove by today. The most that I can recall seeing. They seem to be moving relatively fast on much of the finishing and cosmetic type work. I think that the escalators were in at Mariachi Plaza and is about to be installed at Soto. There looks like a lot left to do, but they are putting a lot of people to work to get it done.

There was also a P2000 at Atlantic. They had the doors open and looked like they were checking clearances.

[metrocenter]

Los Angeles Times: 9:28 PM PDT, Thursday, March 12, 2009

MTA train becomes runaway during Boyle Heights test

By Steve Hymon

The train, with an MTA operator aboard, rolls on its own after a coupler breaks in a tunnel on the Gold Line extension. The agency says there was no danger to people at street level.

Local transit officials had a runaway train on their hands this week in the rail tunnel under Boyle Heights on the new Eastside Gold Line extension.

The incident began about 6 a.m. Tuesday when a truck began to pull the train out of the 1.7-mile tunnel, where it had been stored for the night. The plan was to drag the train east to test the tracks of the new $898-million line due to open this summer.

Instead, a coupling device that attached the train to the truck broke, said Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The train -- with an operator on board and rolling without power -- headed back into the tunnel.

Sotero would not say how far the train traveled or how it was halted, saying the incident was under investigation. He said that no one had been hurt and that the runaway train was not on the street-level section of the tracks.

"There was never any danger to anyone on the street," Sotero said.

If the train had kept going, it would have exited the tunnel in the middle of 1st Street on the east side of the Los Angeles River.

[e-mail]

[bobdavis]

My wife brought the LA Times report of this incident to my attention, and my comment was, "If they'd been running the car on electric power like God and Thomas Edison intended, this wouldn't have happened." I had been told that when the "big rig" was towing LRV's (a procedure I saw back in 2002 before the original Gold Line wires were energized), they had some way of making the LRV brakes usable for cases like this. Maybe this isn't true, or maybe the backup brake as well as the coupler failed. There were some reports of crews working on Sunday, possibly to get the power cables hooked up.

[Justin Walker]

The latest rail ops reports shares several good-to-know facts:

• First train ran under its own power last Wednesday.
  
• Overhead power will be active for testing Mon-Fri 6am-6pm through this week.
  
• Proposed testing operation plan (trains will run revenue Pasadena-LA, empty out, and run non-revenue LA-East LA )
  

[Justin Walker]

Also, Metro posted some cool new pictures of the train testing on their Library Flickr page here.

Here's a few:

[spokker]

Thanks for posting the photos here. The line looks great already.

[Adrian Auer-Hudson]

Yes, I echo that. These pictures have improved my day. They are wonderful.

[erict]

Post has been moved here by The Transit Coalition.

[wakko11]

Mar 20, 2009 10:40:32 GMT -8 erict said:

Photos resized (from the buildexpo.org website):

But this is the Gold Line Eastside Extension board...

[bobdavis]

I was at Union Station today and noticed two Balfour Beatty workers with a bucket truck just south of the Gold Line platform. One of them explained that they were doing "fine tuning" of the overhead and that they were expecting a test train to run on Monday. Personal grounds (safety cables grounding the trolley wire) were in place. I also noticed a gap in one of the northbound rails--not sure whether it will be welded or an insulated joint will be installed.

[metroman]

Mar 15, 2009 22:14:37 GMT -8 Transit Coalition said:

Now, as far as the Breda seats, I understand they are industry standard seats. Why don't you bring a tape measure and check out the different cars and see if the Breda seats are less wide.

Been there, done that. 3/4" narrower seat cushion.

Don't know why.

[bobdavis]

I drove along 3rd, Indiana and 1st yesterday--no cars in evidence, barriers in place and lots of work in progress. At Union Station the grounding cables were back in place on the catenary. Looks like it will be a while before regular test runs start. At Soto St., the escalator assemblies were waiting to be installed.

[Justin Walker]

As they have for past project openings, Metro has whipped up an illustrated "fun map" for the Eastside Extension. Enjoy!


Source

[jejozwik]

Apr 14, 2009 15:22:38 GMT -8 Justin Walker said:

As they have for past project openings, Metro has whipped up an illustrated "fun map" for the Eastside Extension. Enjoy!

i especially like the subtle traffic pollution on the lower left. nice.

[erict]

Some interesting photos from Curbed LA:









"The lumbering giant seen above at the under-construction Gold Line Soto stop in Boyle Heights is actually a piece of artwork from artist Nobuho Nagasawa that'll eventually look like the rendering (looks like another piece is coming). Nagasawa is also doing more work inside the station itself, while all the new Gold Line stops are getting some form of public art. Meanwhile, here's news that is making MTA employees sweat: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (or his minions) has sent out a decree that he plans to ride the new Gold Line extension on June 19th. We've only heard a "summer finish" date for the six-mile Gold Line Eastside Extension, which'll go from Union Station to East LA, and some MTA staffers are worried the line won't be done by that date."
la.curbed.com/archives/2009/04/get_up_lumbering_tower_mayors_coming_to_ride_new_gold_line.php

[bobdavis]

Good sign--last time I drove along 1st St. those escalators (for the subway station) had not been installed.

[metrocenter]

Picture of train rolling down First Street, posted on Little Tokyo Unblogged:

[Adrian Auer-Hudson]

Wow, is that cool, or what?

[Justin Walker]

Here's the latest pic the Metro library posted on its Flickr page. As you can see, the 101 bridge is finally looks as it was intended to: carrying a train across the freeway without those ugly wood side panels on the deck. You can also see a canopy at the Little Tokyo station in the distance.

[losangeles2319]

Dude, this is getting like seriously exciting
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE OPENING!!!

[metrocenter]

Molina wants it called "La Linea De Oro".

www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gold-oro23-2009apr23,0,4959999.story

[spokker]

Gold Line / La Linea De Oro

[wakko11]

Apr 23, 2009 8:37:09 GMT -8 metrocenter said:

Molina wants it called "La Linea De Oro".

www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gold-oro23-2009apr23,0,4959999.story

Pretty terrible idea if you ask me. It's setting a bad precedent for future naming of MTA facilities.

Molina says that the Spanish language has been a "cornerstone of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles". So she is all for ignoring Boyle Heights' past and focusing on the present.

By the way, I live in Boyle Heights about 3 blocks from the Gold Line and neither speak Spanish nor am Latin American.

[erict]

La Lina de Oro sounds seems reasonable to me. Although I genially dislike anything Molina has to say, I guess she comes up with some good ideas (although always political). Why she would not support the DTC is beyond me.

[spokker]

The only possible compromise to be made is displaying "Gold Line" first and the Spanish name second. Street signs on Broadway, for example, don't transform into Chinese the second the street hits Chinatown, though Chinese names are displayed on signage alongside English.

So, in that context, there should be no problem including Spanish names on the Gold Line Eastside Extension.

[wakko11]

Apr 23, 2009 12:26:20 GMT -8 spokker said:

The only possible compromise to be made is displaying "Gold Line" first and the Spanish name second. Street signs on Broadway, for example, don't transform into Chinese the second the street hits Chinatown, though Chinese names are displayed on signage alongside English.

So, in that context, there should be no problem including Spanish names on the Gold Line Eastside Extension.

In that context, all is good.

However, Molina is proposing that the official name be "la Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal". Which means the Spanish translation will be used in all language media. This I think is bad.

[kenalpern]

This is short-sighted, potentially racist (or at least certainly divisive against all the Asian and non-Spanish-speaking individuals who will use this) and a bad idea altogether.

Folks who use this line will already refer to this line as "La Linea de Oro" if they speak Espanol as their first language, just as they currently refer to those others lines: "Las lineas de Azul, de Verde y Roja".

Esto es "Una Idea de Estupida", if you ask me!

Thanks, Gloria--nice addition to the civil discourse needed to make our city/county a more pleasant place to live!

[bluelineshawn]

Naming the line in Spanish will be rendered symbolic fairly soon. Don't forget that Metro plans to switch to either letters or numbers for line names. Some on the board acknowledged that likelihood when they decided to table choosing the color for Expo. I'm still guessing that Expo won't be assigned a color and will get either a letter or number as a name and they'll make the switch for the other lines as well. That makes the most sense with new lines being planned/built along with the scheduled service pattern change when the regional connector is built, which could be sooner rather than later.

[spokker]

It passed.

latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/mta-approves-spanish-translation-of-gold-line.html

I don't really see a problem with the way it's going to be carried out. It's still going to be the Gold Line in English.

I just don't see why it was such a big deal for Molina to bring this up. Even in the article, some Latinos think it was a stupid idea.

Art Herrera, 72, a lifelong Boyle Heights resident and member of the Resident Advisory Committee for the Eastside extension of the Gold Line, criticized the motion.

“To tell you frankly, my kids aren’t going to say, ‘Dad, let’s take La Linea Roja to Hollywood’ either. They’re going to say, ‘Let’s take the Red Line,’ ” Herrera said. “If we go to Mexico, they’re not going to change names to English. This is ludicrous.”

So whatever. Good dose of political wackiness for a Thursday I guess.