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Re: 2nd District and PE?
Author: BOB2
Date: 07-31-2015 - 09:56
Tom is right, the 2nd District was maintained to very high standards, and CQP used it regularly to put westbound freights into Hobart in later years (the grades through Highland Park being considered too steep for efficient eastbound freight movements "uphill" to Pasadena). I took my son on the last trip for LA to Pasadena in 1994, and chased the train out the 210 at 70 mph. to Azusa.
I was involved in the alternatives analysis, and early planning for the potential re-use of the 2nd District. We were offered an alternative with 4 Metrolink trains a day, carrying about 2200 on-offs (for the whole SG Valley), or a light rail line, operating all day and evening, which could carry up to 40,000 daily (just on the Pasadena segment). Carl Ragoza personally chewed me out on this choice one day at the Whistle Stop, but, as the daily demand now indicates, it was the right choice.
I worked not only to re-use the 2nd District line to Sierra Madre Villa, but to maintain the option for a future extension from Sierra Madre Villa east, "in the future"...... I was personally told, back in 1986, by MTA's recently retired DEO Paul Taylor that this would "never ever" happen....(Paul, don't you owe me a beer?).
Next year we will open the segment east to Glendora, add in the connection to Santa Monica, and I expect to see some significant increases in rail ridership, on all lines as a result of the new connections, and the horrendous congestion in these corridors, which will, in several cases, actually make the LRT trip time competitive. The effects of more connectivity are multiplicative in terms of travel origin and destination choices. So it's new OD pair connections times all of the other existing stations.
Mook, I believe that you're wrong on public ownership of the LA-LB ROW, it was owned by the SP when LACTC bought it.... The operations and equipment were taken over, but not the track ownership. And, they even tried to run PCC's from the abandoned LA-Edendale-Glendale line on the PE main, but the track was too rough for the PCC's, and the idea was abandoned, along with the rail service.
LA voters turned down numerous early efforts to acquire and update the PE system, starting with the great plan of 1948. The construction of the San Bernardino Freeway in 1950 cut off the northern lines, and began the toppling of the PE connectivity dominoes, and it was the California Department of Highways, not Jesse Haugh, who did that.
Roger Rabbit may be an "okay" movie, but it isn't exactly history......?
I was involved in the alternatives analysis, and early planning for the potential re-use of the 2nd District. We were offered an alternative with 4 Metrolink trains a day, carrying about 2200 on-offs (for the whole SG Valley), or a light rail line, operating all day and evening, which could carry up to 40,000 daily (just on the Pasadena segment). Carl Ragoza personally chewed me out on this choice one day at the Whistle Stop, but, as the daily demand now indicates, it was the right choice.
I worked not only to re-use the 2nd District line to Sierra Madre Villa, but to maintain the option for a future extension from Sierra Madre Villa east, "in the future"...... I was personally told, back in 1986, by MTA's recently retired DEO Paul Taylor that this would "never ever" happen....(Paul, don't you owe me a beer?).
Next year we will open the segment east to Glendora, add in the connection to Santa Monica, and I expect to see some significant increases in rail ridership, on all lines as a result of the new connections, and the horrendous congestion in these corridors, which will, in several cases, actually make the LRT trip time competitive. The effects of more connectivity are multiplicative in terms of travel origin and destination choices. So it's new OD pair connections times all of the other existing stations.
Mook, I believe that you're wrong on public ownership of the LA-LB ROW, it was owned by the SP when LACTC bought it.... The operations and equipment were taken over, but not the track ownership. And, they even tried to run PCC's from the abandoned LA-Edendale-Glendale line on the PE main, but the track was too rough for the PCC's, and the idea was abandoned, along with the rail service.
LA voters turned down numerous early efforts to acquire and update the PE system, starting with the great plan of 1948. The construction of the San Bernardino Freeway in 1950 cut off the northern lines, and began the toppling of the PE connectivity dominoes, and it was the California Department of Highways, not Jesse Haugh, who did that.
Roger Rabbit may be an "okay" movie, but it isn't exactly history......?
