Riding the Rails
In honor of . "Dump the Pump Day", I thought I would write about a typical morning commute for me. Each passenger has their own way of making it to work and this is currently mine.
I get up around 5:15AM. My son needs to be in school at 7AM and my husband to work by 8AM. When on this schedule, I end up on the 7:18AM train to Union Station. If my husband goes in for 7:00AM, I take the earlier train at 6:47AM. If school is not in session, I end up on the 7:52AM. Note, that during morning rush hour the trains can be as close as 1/2 hour apart. They are usually an hour apart, during off-peak times. Our train leaves Santa Clarita on time almost every day. Metrolink has been working on their reliability and they will actually refund you your money, if your train is consistently late. The Riverside Line has had this problem in the past, due to their sharing the tracks with Union Pacific. The Antelope Valley Line is owned by Metrolink and our trains get priority. After a fast ride, we arrive at Newhall and pick up more Santa Clarita passengers. A few minutes later, we exit our valley, by entering the San Fernando Tunnel. Many passengers find that when they get to the tunnel, they end up falling asleep. A quiet falls over the train car and the gentle rocking back and forth probably reminds one of childhood. When we exit the tunnel about 5 or so minutes later, the car is totally quiet and it does not wake up until we reach San Fernando about 5 minutes after that. If you have ever seen a Metrolink train in the Newhall Pass, you might wonder why we are going so slow. There are actually two reasons. The first one is that the track has many curves in that area, because we are snaking our way around the freeways. The other is that we have a siding that begins at the I-5/210 Interchange. Many of the trains must stop for a red signal at Balboa Blvd. and make a "Train Meet". That is where the Northbound and Southbound trains pass each other. Many areas of the Antelope Valley Line are single tracked and the schedule has to take this into account by making both trains arrive in that siding at approximately the same time. After we pass the siding, we reach the straight section of track that allows the train to travel at our line's top speed of 79 mph. We don't do this for long, because we quickly reach Sylmar/San Fernando Station. After we leave the station, we travel one of the most dangerous sections of the track, but ironically, it is also a section that seems to put people to sleep. So, once again, quiet reigns for about 7 minutes, until we get to Sun Valley. After that stop, the Burbank travelers begin getting their things together and the train basically wakes up. Almost immediately after leaving Sun Valley, we pass the main take-off runway to Burbank Airport and every so often we can watch a plane take-off. 5 minutes later we are in Beautiful Downtown Burbank and about 1/3 of the passengers disembark to waiting vans and buses. The vans are free and will take you to neighborhood Burbank businesses, or the airport itself. Off we go again and another 5-minute trip takes us to Glendale Station. When I used to commute and leave my car in Glendale, I would get to talk to a group of retired people who used to sit at the station and watch the trains each morning. I called them the Guys at Glendale and they were quite an interesting group. I miss them terribly because they were true “Roaders” and had lots of stories to tell. After Glendale, you quickly off to the right will see Taylor Yard, where the Union Pacific used to work on their freight trains. It is being dismantled and parts of the property have been reused by making a neighborhood park. You can see that over on the left. It still has a small presence over on the right, with buildings and a turntable. Immediately after, you see the Metrolink section of the Yard. It is quite impressive to look at all those trains being serviced. As soon as we leave Taylor Yard, we go over the LA River and pass the Metro Gold Line Yard. It is another interesting thing to check out. Over on the left we are on the bank of the LA River, with its flyover bridges above us. A quick right curve and we begin to enter Union Station proper, crossing over tracks and slowly getting to our correct track. Most Antelope Valley Line Trains enter and leave from Track 3, but there are exceptions and our train is one of them. We pull onto Track 4 and disembark down a ramp and into the tunnel that goes under the trains. To get to Union Station proper, go left. To go to the Gateway Transit Plaza where buses run, go right. The Gold Line is on Tracks 1 and 2, just to the left and the Red Line is in either direction, according to if you want the front of the subway, or the rear (left for front, right for rear). I turn to the left out of the tunnel and head for the main area of Union Station. As we leave the tunnel, we immediately turn to the right and then another quick right brings us to the main entrance to the subway. Two down escalators later we are on the track, at the front of the subway. I need the North Hollywood line and I usually have to wait, because usually the Wilshire/Western train is in the station when I arrive. The subways run every 5 minutes and they alternate, so mine will be the next train to leave the track. I get on and off we go. It takes around 15 minutes to travel to my subway station. I get off and take the elevator to the street and walk for about 10 minutes to my office. I am usually at my desk by about 8:45AM. Almost exactly 2 hours. In the evening, I do it all in reverse.
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