Posted Mar 7, 2011, 8:42 PM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 761
|
|
LAB...fantastic news and photo update!
Since I didn't respond in a couple of days, I just backtracked a bit and saw the mention of the slow running light rail trains. It's true the Gold Line has slow speeds on the East LA portion and the curve speed only increased from 10 mph to 15 mph in early 2010 after complaints, so don't expect it to go any faster than it currently does. It just functionally cannot go faster than 15 mph (and it usually averages between 6 - 10 mph in reality) due to the curves.
The Highland Park / Mariom Way speed restriction will not change. It was placed by Metro due to neighborhood concerns. Just like how the Expo Line will stop at Farmdale intersection, but this time the station will make it appear that the stop was meant there. Otherwise, there could have been a ridiculous stop-proceed resolution, which would have made the regular passengers wonder why it always stops at Farmdale.
Now, the Blue Line speed shortcoming is not so bad in LA. From my understanding, LA has synchronized the lights on the Washington boulevard segment so the Blue Line can hit all green lights towards the Alameda corridor. It's the Long Beach portion that's slow as molasses. Somebody quoted that it takes 15 minutes to travel 3 miles in Long Beach when it hits street running. That's your real problem with the Blue Line. Long Beach sabotaged the light rail train and made it into streetcar operations in the LBC. The hope is that Expo Line gets the Washington blvd treatment and not Eastside Gold Line though...
|
Threaded Mode