As many of you know, Metro has been working to increase space for cyclists on its subway and light rail cars — and will be taking out a few seats here and there to help.
Metrolink is getting in the act, too — and vastly increasing room for bikes on two rail cars on the Inland Empire line. If cyclists respond, Metrolink says it’s prepared to add 10 more bike cars to its fleet.
Here’s the news release:
As part of a pilot program, Metrolink will introduce its first two “bicycle cars,” passenger railcars outfitted with space for at least 18 bicycles, instead of two slots like Metrolink’s other railcars. The agency hopes this will encourage more bicyclists to take the train to their destination.
To accommodate the additional bicycles, Metrolink crews removed 29 passenger seats on the bottom level of one of its railcars that traditionally seats up to 149 people.
“We hope to attract bicyclists whose public transportation options may be limited by available storage space,” said Metrolink CEO John Fenton. “We are committed to growing our ridership; to do that, we have to modify the type of services we offer.”
Metrolink used in-house resources to design and retrofit existing cars with additional storage for bicycles. The agency coordinated with bicycle advocates on the design, which was ultimately approved by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Initially, Metrolink’s “bicycle cars” will debut on the Inland-Empire line weekend beach trains, where the demand is highest for additional bicycle storage space. Bicycle cars can be identified by yellow decals located on the outside of the rail car.
Metrolink is prepared to add up to 10 additional “bicycle cars” to its fleet, depending on the success of the pilot program.
ABOUT METROLINK
Metrolink is Southern California’s regional commuter rail service in its 19th year of operations. The Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), a joint powers authority made up of an 11-member board representing the transportation commissions of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, governs the service. Metrolink operates over seven routes through a six-county, 512 route-mile network.
By the way – I like idea of bike-friendly trains and look forward to solutions that work for byclists and those who aren’t.
@betterfuture:
A) They are usually called “cyclists” not “bikers”. “Bikers”, IME, are Motorycle users.
B) These spaces being in one car free up space in the other cars for seats, or luggage, strollers, etc.
As it was there were too many seats on LA Metro’s rail cars to facilitate efficient loading and unloading, especially given the rather short length of average trips. And the newly created spaces on LA Metro’s cars are certainly not being used exclusively by bicycles! For example, the TAP Turnstile contractors were using it to move their tool and parts carts around the Red/Purple Lines last year.
Also having the bicycles in one car means no hunting for a free space from car to car thus ensuring quicker station stops and maintaining on-time operations.
C)Bicycles on Mass Transit equals “Socialism”, huh? Who knew!?! Remind me again which mode of transportation is not subsidized?
I love this idea. I’m just about to move back home to San Dimas and would love to be able to take my bike on the metro to work.
I’ll be taking the metrolink from covina to downtown, then purple line to the western/wilshire, then biking 5 miles to beverly hills!
I’m going to see if there is a locker at the western/wilshire stop. but if not, i hope i can take my bike aboard for the whole trip!
Hi Philip;
It looks like there are bike lockers at Wilshire/Western. Here is a map with locker locations.
Have fun and be safe!
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
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gud and nice metro link