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Metrolink in a Tail Spin: Is there a way out?
Napoleon used to say that he liked his generals to be lucky. Presumably he would not have employed the first CEOs of Metrolink, who suffered considerably from ill fortune, particularly the Glendale accident. But bad luck is only one small part of the picture that has brought about the near collapse of Metrolink. After 23…
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How My Train Was 90 Minutes Late, Yet I still Got Home On Time
Even the best plans can get derailed. I planned to catch a mid-afternoon train out of Oceanside on a recent Friday to see a friend and his wife off who were taking the Sunset to travel home after a California vacation. The plan was they would meet me at LAUS when I got off the…
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San Diego County Trains have connections
San Diego County has 3 intra-county rail passenger services. There is the Sprinter, a 22 mile DMU service between Oceanside and Escondido. There is also the Coaster, the 40 mile locomotive hauled commuter service between Oceanside and downtown San Diego. And the oldest service since 1981, the San Diego Trolley, has 53 miles of Light…
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Train Trips to Disneyland ?
Summer, particularly in August up to Labor Day is one of the busiest travel periods in this Country. The Pacific Surfliners has its busiest month in August. The reason for this is no secret. Summer is the time for vacations and leisure travel. People like to travel.Thomas Cook understood that as early as 1841 when…
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Metrolink to Withdraw Cab Cars from Service
Yesterday evening the Board of SCRRA (Metrolink) held a closed session meeting described as pursuant to public safety threat (or words to that effect. The notice is no longer on their website). The real purpose of the meeting was to inform the Board that the NTSB had requested that the Rotem cab cars be withdrawn…
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Metrolink – Where to from here?
The interview of Art Leahy, Metrolink CEO, by Dan Weikel was revealing. (LA Times, June 30th) The revelation is that there is no long term movement to make Metrolink a vibrant, relevant mobility option for large numbers of citizens. Nothing that Leahy said indicated a desire to do anything more than business as usual, except with…
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What is Metrolink’s New CEO Art Leahy Up Too?
The interview in the June 30th Los Angeles Times by reporter Dan Weikel with Art Leahy gave some hints of what the future plans for Metrolink are. What was missing in the interview was background information about what was discussed. Leahy in the interview makes it clear that his priorities are dealing with the problems…
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How to Serve All Stations with Faster Trains
Almost every town that has railroad tracks with passenger rail service on them would love to have a train station. If a town has a train station, it would love to have every passenger train going past to stop at its station.The problem with that is if every train stopped at every station, you would…
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Norwalk-Santa Fe Springs Metrolink Station: Future Intermodal Center?
The Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Station is roughly half way between downtown Los Angeles and Anaheim.
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Challenges Facing the Next CEO of Metrolink
There is a job opening for the next head of Metrolink which will be filled soon. Only those who seek challenges need apply. Metrolink has many problems, and some of them have been festering for years and ignored. Here is a short list of them.