Ventura County Line

Ventura County Line

The Metrolink station at Chatsworth
Overview
Type Commuter rail line
System Metrolink
Status Operating
Locale Greater Los Angeles Area and Ventura County
Termini Los Angeles Union Station
East Ventura
Stations 12
Daily ridership 3,950 (2012)[1]
Operation
Operator(s) Metrolink
Character Elevated and surface-level
Technical
Line length 70.9 miles (114.1 km) (average length between stations: 6.445 miles)
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in)
Operating speed 39.22 mph (63.12 km/h) (average for trains that travel the full line length on Mon-Fri)
Route map

The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system.[2]

Schedules

Metrolink trains on the Ventura County Line run weekdays only, mostly during peak commuter hours, and so with limited midday service. From Union StationDowntown Los Angeles (as 7-2011):

East Ventura
Moorpark
Chatsworth
Airport

Other service

Service is augmented during midday and on weekends by the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner line, serving most of the Metrolink stations on the Ventura County Line.

Airport

Additional airport shuttle service operates between Union Station and Bob Hope Airport station as the Burbank-Bob Hope Airport LineBUR. Metrolink numbers Airport Line trains in the 900 series.[3]

Tracks

Metrolink owns the tracks between Moorpark and Los Angeles Union Station. It uses the Coast Line of the Union Pacific Railroad between Moorpark and Oxnard where the Santa Paula Branch splits from the rest of the Coast Line. The East Ventura Station and layover facility are on the Santa Paula branch line.

History

See also: CalTrain

Service on this line began in 1992 as one of Metrolink's original three lines, with service from Moorpark to Los Angeles Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. The line was extended to Camarillo and Oxnard in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake, then to East Ventura in 2002.

Accidents

2008 Chatsworth train collision

At 4:23 p.m. on September 12, 2008, 25 people were killed in a collision between Metrolink commuter train 111 and a freight train. At least 130 people were injured, with at least one dying later at a hospital. The crash occurred on the Ventura County Line near Heather Lee Lane, south of the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway and east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Both locomotives, the leading car of the commuter train, and seven cars of the freight train were derailed.

2015 Oxnard train derailment

On 24 February 2015, according to Oxnard Police Sergeant Denise Shadinger, a Metrolink commuter train traveling from Ventura County to Los Angeles hit a road vehicle near Oxnard, California; she initially said there was an unspecified number of injuries. The incident was reported at 5:44 A.M. Three cars derailed, at least one vehicle was fully engulfed at some point, and the three derailed cars were on their sides; the locomotive was still upright. Little but scorched, mangled wreckage in an intersection and on the tracks was left of the truck; Oxnard Fire Department battalion chief Sergio Martinez said the driver fled the scene unhurt but was found and taken into custody. News helicopters and footage from CNN affiliate KABC showed footage of triage tarps lying in the 5th Street (SR 34) where on-scene firefighters were treating victims and monitoring the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in a tweet, acknowledged the incident and stated they were launching an investigation.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The train engineer died a week later and 29 others were injured. A week after the incident, an Amtrak train collided with a vehicle in the same area as the first crash.[10]

References

  1. "Metrolink Fact Sheet for June 2012" (PDF). Metrolink. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  2. Hattem, Matt Van (June 30, 2006). "Metrolink, The commuter railroad serving Los Angeles". Trains Magazine. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
  3. "Train Schedules | Metrolink". Metrolinktrains.com. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  4. "Metrolink train hits a vehicle in Oxnard". vcstar.com. The E.W. Scripps Co. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  5. "Alerts, Service Advisories and Planned Advisories | Metrolink". Metrolinktrains.com. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  6. "Abandoned truck's driver arrested after commuter train crash". Msn.com. 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  7. Lah, Kyung (2015-02-25). "Train technology prevented tragedy in California". CNN.com. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  8. "Truck driver who caused California derailment arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  9. "Truck driver arrested after train crash". Usatoday.com. 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  10. Nelson, Laura J. (March 1, 2015). "Amtrak train strikes car in Camarillo; no serious injuries reported". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 2, 2015.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

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