Keeping Southern California's Future on Track
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Keeping Southern California’s 25Future on Track CONTENTS Message from the Board Chair .........................1 CEO’s Message .....................................................3 A Quarter Century of Moving People: The Metrolink Story .............................................5 How It All Began ................................................19 Metrolink’s Top Priority: Safety .......................27 WHO WE ARE Environment ........................................................31 Metrolink is Southern California’s regional commuter rail service in its Metrolink Relieves Driving Stress ...................35 25th year of operation. Metrolink is governed by The Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), Board Members Past and Present ..................40 a joint powers authority made up of an 11-member board representing Metrolink Pioneering Staff the transportation commissions of Still on Board ......................................................47 Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Metrolink Employees Metrolink operates seven routes Put Customers First ...........................................48 through a six-county, 538-route-mile network with 60 stations. Facts at a Glance ...............................................50 For more information, including how to ride, go to www.metrolinktrains.com MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to provide safe, efficient, dependable and on-time transportation service that offers outstanding customer experience and enhances quality of life. For more information, including how to ride, go to metrolinktrains.com. MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD CHAIR Metrolink started 25 years ago when the five counties that compose our joint powers authority–Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura—came together for a common purpose–offering commuter rail service in a traffic-choked region. By reducing 8.7 million car trips annually, Metrolink has proven to be an effective relief valve taking enough pressure off the freeways to avert gridlock. WITH ROADWAYS Our double-decker trains make Metrolink has harnessed cutting- International CONGESTED AND it possible for residents from the edge technology in other areas, Airport, AT CAPACITY, THE Inland Empire to Ventura, northern too. Its new Tier 4 locomotives are are being Los Angeles County and elsewhere the cleanest, most powerful and integrated into FUTURE OF MOBILITY to access jobs and education safest diesel engines of any major strategies to LIES IN PUBLIC throughout Southern California and commuter rail agency in the nation. expand and TRANSPORTATION. explore a region rich in culture and We’re making it easier to buy tickets improve our METROLINK IS THE network. entertainment. We serve workers, with a mobile app, track trains online ONLY WAY TO TRAVEL students, families, seniors and and communicate better with our It’s fitting that THE VAST REGION OF tourists. We have carried millions of customers. as Metrolink riders in safety, comfort and reliability SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA New technologies such as is poised to at an affordable price. FOR A SAFE, STRESS- autonomous shuttles connecting expand, we FREE COMMUTE. Metrolink also moves the economy. riders with Metrolink stations may look to an Each month Metrolink Operations debut in the not so distant future. ensemble staff efficiently dispatches more than Building a throughway at Union of funding partners—the private sector, federal 1,400 freight trains and 4 million Station for trains, construction of new and state governments—to augment pounds of goods on Metrolink tracks inner city light rail systems like the what the counties of Los Angeles, used by BNSF and Union Pacific Regional Connector in downtown Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino that wend their way from the ports of Los Angeles that connect with and Ventura contribute. Investing in Los Angeles and Long Beach bound Metrolink, and other projects will bolster ridership. Metrolink is much more cost-effective for inland manufacturing centers and than pouring concrete for new shipment across the country. This next quarter century Metrolink ribbons of highway. will grow its network, add more trips This is an agency that has grown and convert more drivers to train With roadways congested and at over the years in so many ways. riders by offering quality commuter capacity, the future of mobility lies in It transcends service expansion. rail service. Grade separations public transportation. Metrolink is the Metrolink has grappled with tragedy, and more track along our existing only way to travel the vast region of notably the fatal crash in Chatsworth corridors will allow Metrolink to Southern California for a safe, stress- in 2008, and emerged as a national improve its current service and add free commute. safety leader. It advanced positive • service for the next 25 years and train control that can stop a train beyond. and prevent train-to-train collisions and derailments and other safety Plans for future connections, such improvements. as Disneyland, LAX and Ontario Andrew F. Kotyuk, Board Chair METROLINK 25th Anniversary Report 1 CEO’S MESSAGE Metrolink exists to take cars off the road. There is no cheaper or more effective way to do that and give relief to our congested freeways. That held true 25 years ago. It holds true today. But we’re really talking about people. Major job expansion will take place Fewer cars means people can get in San Bernardino and Orange where they need to go faster and Counties in cities like Irvine but car or extending service to Santa without stress. And as we look ahead, also in Riverside, Santa Clarita and Barbara or San Luis Obispo. Perhaps Metrolink is uniquely poised to do northern Los Angeles County and we should explore truncating some even more to ease traffic in a region other areas. Downtown Los Angeles Oceanside service at Irvine to add that suffers from the will remain the vital center of the trains on the Inland Empire-Orange worst congestion in region and its transportation system. County line to meet pent-up demand. the nation. ABOVE ALL WE As it has for a quarter century, We need to double-track the Metrolink will knit these disparate MUST PUT OUR That’s a bold entire Metrolink system and add statement, but the communities together, providing CUSTOMERS FIRST. more signals to bolster speed and reality is that 82 access to jobs, schools, hospitals, reliability. Run-through tracks at Union THAT’S THE TICKET percent of our riders shopping, sports, cultural and Station could save travel time. Diesel FOR SIPHONING could drive to work, entertainment venues. Our regional multiple units and rail cars – smaller MORE CARS OFF and most commute service complements local transit trains powered by on-board diesel operators as well as Amtrak. OUR FREEWAYS long distances across engines instead of locomotives – county lines. So, might be an option in the not so At the same time Metrolink must AND KEEPING OUR for just about every distant future to run more midday secure adequate funding to, REGION ON THE Metrolink train rider, and evening trains. most importantly, ensure that our MOVE. one car or truck is equipment, track, bridges, signals parked somewhere, Metrolink could partner more with and maintenance facilities are kept ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft so many in fact that in a state of good repair and bolster to help shuttle riders to and from our Metrolink eases traffic safety as well as expand service. stations. And we must figure out how volume by about one or two parallel to reduce fares while still recovering lanes of freeway traffic during rush Metrolink has a resourceful, financially 44 percent of our trip costs from hours. prudent staff and an enterprising riders and other sources, the highest governing board that has always The era of freeway construction is among public transit operators in found creative ways to succeed. In an ending, even if billions of tax dollars Southern California. era when major transit agencies are were readily available. But we can losing riders, Metrolink is still showing Above all we must put our customers add more trains to help handle not gains. On-time performance and first. That’s the ticket for siphoning only today’s demand for service but service reliability keep improving. more cars off our freeways and future demand in Southern California keeping our region on the move. as our population grows by 4 million Still, we can’t rest on our laurels. • residents by 2035 to about 23 million Metrolink should consider drawing people. Half that growth will take new riders by offering such place in the Inland Empire. passenger amenities as a beverage Art Leahy, CEO METROLINK 25th Anniversary Report 3 A QUARTER CENTURY OF MOVING PEOPLE: THE METROLINK STORY People. They’re the essence of Metrolink, not the powerful locomotives or the hundreds of miles of track that knit together dozens of far-flung communities in the sprawling Southern California region. For the past 25 years Metrolink has given desperate commuters and others an alternative to slogging through the nation’s worst traffic and made commuting a more humane experience. “I love the train and will never a human face on the Southern been a conductor on Metrolink trains commute on Southern California California Regional Rail Authority, the past nine years and is currently highways again,” says Metrolink rider commonly known as Metrolink. working the early morning Antelope Kristi Hall, who switched to Metrolink Valley Line as well as midday service “The people. That’s