Peter Saathoff-HarshfieldI guess in LA you can’t avoid being on a highway, even if you take a train. To be fair, BART and VTA light rail have the same problem.
Traveling along the location of this infamous video, where a steam locomotive is in the middle of the highway.
Santa Fe 3751 (Los Angeles-San Bernardino) Feat. High Speed Pace!
I can see right down into people’s pools in their backyards. It would be cool to be hanging out in your pool and then a train goes by right there.
At Pomona North station, where the A line now ends. I’ll need to come back here to ride that.
One station was Claremont, and the next one was Montclair. 🤔
I made it to San Bernardino Downtown station, and the Arrow train arrived on an adjacent platform a few minutes later. Unlike the San Bernardino line train, which has no level boarding, this one has level boarding at 22 in, and the platform is a bit higher at the station.
Unfortunately, this appears to be a diesel Stadler Flirt, not the hydrogen one. Very smooth ride through industrial areas though.
I got to Redlands - University station. It looks like they’re just running the same physical train back and forth for the 20-min journey, so little hope of seeing the hydrogen train.
Back at San Bernardino Downtown station. The main platform here is 8in above the rails, and the Arrow train platform was built 14 in higher at 22in above rail, so there are two ramps and one set of two steps to get up to the higher platform. .
I rode the Metrolink San Bernardino line train again, westbound this time, and got off at Pomona North station, where it connects to the end of the LA Metro A line. This is one end of the longest tram line in the world. There’s nothing really here. I’m getting on the A.
After passing APU/Citrus College station, I’ve again ridden the whole LA Metro Rail system. Hopefully they’ll add more soon so that I again will not have ridden the whole system.
Riding the LA Metro 45 bus now, just to get a bit across downtown.
Now I’m on the Metrolink Orange County line train. Wheelchair riders do not get to look out a window.
I got off at Anaheim and got on the Orange County Transit 553 bus to get to the area where CSUN is. Catching buses is usually too frantic to permit taking photos of the bus.
Now I’m on the Orange County Transit 83 bus, headed to the Santa Ana Transit Center, so I can check out the infrastructure of the OC Streetcar. This bus is driving on I-5 in some sections.
I’ve walked along the route of the street car several blocks. Honestly, I don’t yet understand why it is being built. It is Monday afternoon, but minimal people are around on the streets. I also haven’t seen any buses traveling along this route.
At the yard though, I found a streetcar sitting outside. The front of a second one was just barely visible behind a fence.
On the other side of the yard by the street, I caught some more glimpses of the street cars.
I walked to the other end of the line at Harbor Blvd. Just before the end, it goes over Westminster Ave on a bridge.
Riding the Orange County Transit 43 bus back to the area where CSUN is. This will probably be my last ride on a transit vehicle for a while.
Edit: actually it was the 543, which is express, so I went slightly too far and have to walk back.
Edit: actually it was the 543, which is express, so I went slightly too far and have to walk back.
Took the 553 back to Anaheim station, where I left on a Metrolink train earlier than expected because the previous hour’s train was so late.
At Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs station, the tracks are on a curve, and the tracks are tipped over a lot (they have a lot of cant). It feels like the train is going to fall over onto the platform.
Now I’m at LA Union Station waiting for the A. This is getting pretty familiar to me. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll be able to take a new train.
As I walk around downtown LA, I’m imagining how much better it could be if the roads were narrower, sidewalks were wider and had more tree cover, buses had dedicated lanes, more roads had separated bike lanes like on Spring st, and curb ramps actually pointed at the crossings.
I’m back at Union Station to ride the Metrolink Antelope Valley line all the way to its terminus in Lancaster.
The conductor on this train says a Union Pacific train hit a car further up the line, so this train is stopped at Vincent Grade/Acton.
Metrolink is making everyone find some other way to get where they’re going. They will give people a $50 Uber credit, in the Metrolink app, which is a bad app that not everyone has. People shouldn’t have to agree to the terms of Uber as the only compensation for public transit not working. I don’t know if Uber has wheelchair-accessible vehicles here.
And of course, because a trainload of people is trying to order a bunch of rides from Uber here at the same time, the price has gone up to $70 to get to Lancaster.
I talked to the conductor. Apparently this train will go back down to LA at some point, so I’m hanging out on the platform until that happens. I think this train is waiting until the time it would have left this station on the scheduled trip back to LA. Another train hit a car between Glendale and Burbank, so that may also delay us down there.
California HSR will hopefully eventually go up through this area to get to Bakersfield from LA.
We got stopped at Burbank Airport - North for about 10 min. Now we’re allowed to continue to Burbank Downtown, but no further.
The train wasn’t moving at Burbank Downtown, so I’m taking the LA Metro 94 bus to North Hollywood. I’m glad the Metrolink train got me at least this close to other public transit.
Finally rode Angels Flight, one of the few remaining funicular railways in the United States. I made sure to ride both cars.
Angels flight is not wheelchair-accessible. It requires riders to walk up or down steps through the whole car to access seats and exit at the other end.
I got on the E at Pico heading west, and at Expo/Vermont they made everyone get off on the eastbound platform, cross the road, and get on another train on the westbound platform. Hundreds of people were crossing the tracks diagonally as they crossed Vermont Ave, which had a green light, and people in cars were honking as they inched toward the mass of people.
I got off at La Cienega/Jefferson and went to Baldwin Hills, because nice views, and I find it fascinating that it’s possible to go to a park and see oil extraction right there.
I rode the E back downtown, and it didn’t have any issue passing through the Expo/Vermont area.
Later last night, I walked over to the area where the railroads used to go through downtown LA, before industry moved elsewhere and all passenger trains were moved to Union Station in 1939. I found a few bits of track, but the old stations were all demolished decades ago and there’s little sign of anything left.
After a quick trip on the A, I’m on the Amtrak Coast Starlight heading north.
Two hours ago in Salinas, the train hit a person who was on the track, in this case nowhere near a grade crossing. We were probably 30 seconds from getting to the station, but we’re still stopped waiting for an investigation to happen
Actually, as I was about to hit send, the train started moving again. We were stopped for 2 hours 5 minutes.
The delays continue… I was hoping to make the 22:28 northbound Caltrain at San Jose. Then the Amtrak train had to wait near Tamien for about 15 min, so I then hoped to get the 22:58 train. We got into San Jose at 22:40 or so, but the 22:58 Caltrain was cancelled, probably because of major delays in the southbound direction. So, I had to wait until 23:30 for the very last northbound Caltrain of the day.