The Train Riders Association California held their annual conference at the Hilton Hotel near the Burbank Airport. Founded in March 1984 as a citizen lobby and later incorporated as a California 501(c)4 non-profit Corporation by founders Roger Hooson, Erik Lange, Dan Lovegren and Richard Tolmach, their subsequent activism and interest in various rail-related legislative proposals lead to an early alliance with the Planning and Conservation League, that had been separately promoting passenger train service as part of its own program.
The two organizations were convinced that because of the congestion, sprawl and increasing environmental degradation being caused by the State Government's over-commitment to roadway travel, Californians would welcome and support a program designed to improve California’s system of passenger trains.
On Saturday October 15, I rode with Carl Morrison of Trainweb to Burbank on Pacific Surfliner 763 on my way to Santa Barbara. Carl would cover all the meetings while I enjoyed a beautiful October day. On the way back on Pacific Surfliner 784, I met him at Burbank and he had set me up to attend the Sunday Metrolink shop tour that the conference offered. We returned Carl to Fullerton, where Steve Grande of Trainweb was waiting with a new digital camera for me to use tomorrow on the tour.
Pacific Surfliner 763 10/16/2005
I drove to the Santa Ana station and checked my train status.
The location of the future west tower of the pedestrian bridge that will connect to the existing building.
A few minutes later, Pacific Surfliner 763 arrived and it was a quick trip to LAUPT where we switched train crews then stopped at Glendale.
The blue tarpaulins cover four of the wrecked Metrolink cars from a couple of major accidents. A few minutes later, I detrained at the Burbank Airport station, now known as Bob Hope Airport. My ride was not there and since the telephone at the station, did not work I decided to walk over to the Hilton, hoping the tour group would still be there. They were in the lobby and I found Allen Miller, who offered me a ride to the Metrolink shops.
Metrolink Shop Tour 10/16/2005We stopped at the guard shack to sign a list to enter the shop grounds the once inside, we drove to the east side of the shop building where we met the rest of our small tour group and went up to the second floor break room for a safety briefing.
Loren Gros of Metrolink, Michael McGinley, Metrolink Director of Engineering and Construction and Craig Everly, General Manager of Bombardier, gave a safety briefing before answering questions. Metrolink uses 33 trainsets for 144 trains on weekdays. Ridership is up over 3,000 passengers from last year and is carrying over 41,000 per weekday. The shops have two shifts five days a week and a skeleton crew on Saturday. They have a staff of 150 people with a few at the overnight layover facilities.
Almost all Metrolink trains pass through the maintenance yard here where they are watered, holding tanks dumped, cleaned and washed. Engines are refuelled and sanded. A few trains, such as the San Bernardino-to-Oceanside train, make a single daily round trip, so they get into the yard every second day. 90-day brake overhauls and other light maintenance is also handled here. The ongoing project is the replacement of seat cushions and carpeting on the original Metrolink cars. The shops have a wheel truing machine, drop pits and overhead cranes and can handle most repairs, but anything such as wreck repair must be contracted out, which includes some of the wrecked cars from the accidents of the last few years. Nine cars have been lost from the roster due to accidents.
The SD60s that Metrolink bought used at a good price are used in work train service. They have two trainsets and one engine leased from the Sounder of Seattle. Metrolink has now just leased four cars from the Altamont Commuter Express to help out with ridership increases. Future expansion will be from San Bernardino to Omni Transit in that city and in the future, that service would be expanded to Redlands using DMUs into San Bernardino with cross-platform transfers to other Metrolink lines.
Riverside County is working on new service to Perris on the old Santa Fe San Jacinto Branch. Service would start at Romoland (South Perris) and run into Los Angeles as 700 service. In Orange County, new service would be run between Laguna Niguel and Fullerton as shuttle trains every half hour. Once the questions were answered, the tour commenced.
Seating materials for the replacement of the original batch of Bombardier bi-level coaches.
Replacement carpeting for those same cars. From here we walked into the shop.
Metrolink coach 173 built by Bombardier in 1997.
The trucks of 173.
Metrolink cab car 622 built by Bombardier in 1993.
Spare Seattle Sounder bi-level coach 231, built by Bombardier in 2002, in the shop for some minor work. These cars must be run in consists by themselves.
Another Metrolink coach.
Our group outside the diesel shop.
Metrolink locomotives in front of the diesel shop.
Metrolink F40PH 800, nee Amtrak 396 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1985. It is the lone operating F40PH on the roster.
Interior of the diesel shop.
Our tour group.
Traction motors as our group looks on.
The raised inspection track.
The inside of a Metrolink locomotive, which concluded the tour. After we all thanked our hosts, we car-pooled to Los Angeles Union Station and I returned home while the rest would go to Riverside on a Sunday Metrolink train.
Pacific Surfliner 774 10/16/2005
We departed on time and other than a red signal at Norwalk, had an easy ride to Santa Ana, arriving on time.
I walked around the train to see the future northbound platform from the north end.
A fond farewell to Conductor CJ just before the train continued on its journey to San Diego. This ended yet another great day of train riding and a fantastic tour of the Metrolink shops.
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