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November 26, 2001 |
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MTA Starts 3-Car Train Service on Busy Metro Blue Line
Versión
en español MTA Board Chairman John
Fasana was joined by Los Angeles County Supervisors and MTA Board members
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Don Knabe and new MTA CEO Roger Snoble in
riding one of the first trains to have three cars instead of two. MTA will
be phasing in more 3-car train trips as it takes delivery of new light
rail vehicles. The third car will
allow MTA to carry up to 145 more seated and standing passengers. That
should help ease crowding on the light rail line that carried a record
69,400 average weekday boarding passengers last August. Just one decade
after it debuted in 1990, the Metro Blue Line had reached capacity. MTA spent approximately
$11 million during the past 16 months to extend the platforms at 19
stations to accommodate 3-car trains along the 22-mile route which serves
Watts, Compton, Willowbrook as well as Long Beach, Los Angeles and other
communities. The Metro Green Line
light rail line, which connects with the Metro Blue Line in Willowbrook,
also is being upgraded. MTA has started phasing in 2-car trains on that
line instead of running one-car trains. “The Metro Blue Line
is a transit lifeline that gives tens of thousands of riders, largely
minorities and low-income people, access to jobs, schools, medical care,
shopping, recreation and other opportunities,” said MTA Chairman Fasana. Fasana noted that the
Metro Blue Line is part of the expanding Metro Rail system that serves
many parts of Los Angeles County with fast, inexpensive and safe
transportation. “This upgrade will
allow us to keep pace with demand today and grow with the future,”
Fasana said. LA County Supervisor
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the immediate past MTA Board Chair, introduced
the motion calling for expanding Metro Blue Line platforms in 1999, and
was in the forefront of the MTA Board’s search for funding. “We worked a long
time to get this,” said Supervisor Burke. “The Metro Blue Line carries
more passengers than any other light-rail line in the nation except
Boston, so this is
very important to help eliminate crowding.” MTA-150 |
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