Real Railroads seem to have a lot of "MOW spurs" scattered around. Places to stage maintenance equipment, stash cars with hotboxes, and the like. Maybe light rail lines should have a few (more) of them too.

For now, I see lines like Sacramento having spurs or small yards where they short-terminate trains, or at the ends of the line, or in a spot downtown, for storing extra cars during the day when the commuters don't need them. That avoids a lot of deadhead time hauling stuff back and forth to the shops yard (which is not convenient to either downtown or the ends of the lines). LA seems to have "shops" yards better located for that. Still, for staging at major venues like USC, a place to store extra equipment would be useful both for extra service and for the occasional broken stuff. Sacramento's lucky in that its big arena is downtown, so extra trains for after the game can be stashed at the Amtrak station (small yard with space for at least 2, maybe 4 trains) a few blocks away and 13th St. (the other side of downtown).