Major delays to Red/Purple Line subway service in downtown Los Angeles

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FINAL UPDATE, 9 pm: @metrolosangeles: Pershing Sq Update: Both entrances reopened at this time. Red + Purple Lines will run on maintenance schedule thru close tonight.

As of 6 p.m. today, there are major disruptions to Red/Purple Line service in downtown Los Angeles due to a medical emergency that occurred about 3 p.m. at the Pershing Square station.

•Please follow announcements in the stations.

•Trains are running but are currently bypassing Pershing Square.

UPDATE, 4:25 pm: the station has reopened but trains are sharing a single track. The 4th Street entrance is open, the 5th Street entrance closed.

•Purple Line trains are only running between Wilshire/Western and Westlake/MacArthur Park stations due to limited capacity on the tracks at this time.

•For those trying to reach Union Statio, please consider using the city of Los Angeles' DASH bus service in downtown or these alternative Metro buses that run in downtown and stop at Union Station: the Silver Line on Olive Street, 728 on Hill Street, 745 on Broadway and the 733 on Main Street.

•Here's Google Transit to help plan transit trips.

 

Categories: Service Alerts

15 replies ›

    • Hi Jon.

      Please see my earlier comment about this. I won’t be commenting any more at this time other than to say that Metro does not believe it was an act of malice.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  2. Can you at least tell us, given that the incident was at Pershing Square station, why Purple Line trains were turning around at Westlake/MacArthur Park? I understand emergencies, but 7th/Metro Center is a MAJOR transfer point.

    • Hi Metrocenter;

      Trains had to single-track around Pershing Square, creating a bottleneck. The idea was to limit the number of trains in the downtown corridor, therefore the reason Purple Line trains were turning around.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  4. I agree with Stephen. Regardless how perfect things seem, there is always room for improvement. Perhaps a bulletin board at the entrance with information on alternate routes. We were alerted by other passengers about the service halt but could not get much more information. We then walked all the way to the Pershing Square Station and was directed to take the bus on Broadway. The bus (#475) dropped us off at the side entrance of Union Station and the rest were all history. I remember being warned about incidence like this would happen at least once a month by my colleagues but still consider that we have a great system servicing such vast area. It only took me an additional 30 minutes for the commute but I had learned about some alternate routes and means to get to Union Station (if happened again) from the office. For now, I would just need to learn how to get to the Sierra Madre Villa Station in the event that the Gold Line had failed.

    • Hi folks.

      Thanks for the comments about the service alerts on yesterday’s disruptions to the Red Line. We tried our best to push out as much information as quickly as possible on our Twitter feed and we also had a post on this blog that was updated throughout the rush hour. Obviously those underground can’t get a cell signal, but we were hoping to reach as many people as possible before they entered the subway. I encourage everyone to subscribe to our primary Twitter feed or our service alerts Twitter feed.

      I will certainly pass along comments from customers about providing alternate route information and ways we could improve that.

      As for the incident itself, Metro has no further comment except to say it was very tragic and we do not want to speak prematurely or erroneously about what happened. Our primary job yesterday afternoon was to help our riders get where they were trying to go. Thank you again for your comments and patience yesterday,

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

      • Hi again folks.

        I wanted you to know that I have had to delete a few comments on this thread. If your comment is not published, it’s because I didn’t think it was appropriate or I thought it was overly speculative. I’m sorry. The vast majority of comments on this blog are usually published, even the ones that are highly critical of Metro.

        I’d like to clarify and add a few comments about this. If you’re on this blog, you’re on the internet. You have access to the media. While we certainly push out a lot of news about the agency on this blog, we’re not the media. And our jobs don’t always overlap.

        My thinking on this has evolved in my time with Metro. I usually want to push out as much news as is possible. That said, I’ve been doing this for a while now and I remain deeply uncomfortable speculating when it comes to incidents involving Metro. Second, and equally important, we have to consider the safety of current and future customers and I think it’s reasonable, if in my shoes, to ask this question: are there certain types of behavior that perhaps we don’t want to publicize or inadvertently encourage?

        I understand where many of you are coming from. You don’t want to be treated like children and you want to be informed. I totally understand. We tried our best to use our web resources yesterday to get people where they wanted to go. We also have to use our best judgment at times on the information we push out and that depends, to some degree, on the circumstances of a particular incident and what we do or don’t know about it in “real time.”

        This answer will almost certainly not satisfy many of you, but I want to explain my thinking as best as possible.

        Thank you for reading,

        Steve Hymon
        Editor, The Source

  5. What happened? Why was the track closed off for a medical emergency? Seems a little off

  6. I agree with Stephen.I had to Walk home from Main St. / 6th St all the way to 1st and Boyle. That’s a long walk to do after a long day at work. L.A has the most awful service I have ever encountered.

  7. The red Line @ Pershing Square is still close off. I could not access the platform off 4th && Hill ass of 6:50 pm 8/6/13

  8. Agreed Stephen; CS at Metro is something to be DESIRED! “You need to inform your customers more accurately about abnormal situations.” God forbid they give us informed info m=to make alternat plans!!!!

  9. Be thankful that you are alive and going home to your wife instead of complaining about how accurately “abnormal” situations of getting home should be announced or posted. Whatever happened to that person — their family had to be notified — Can you imagine what that must have been like for this family in the first 5 minutes????? That person will never make it home again.

  10. So if ur riding from wilshire/normandie area the only bus running to union station is the 481 foothill transit

  11. The Metro rep at Pershing Square told me at about 3:30 that the only way to get to North Hollywood was to go to the Westlake station, and that situation would last through the evening. According to this posting I could have just walked to Civic Center station rather than calling my wife to come from home to pick me up. You need to inform your customers more accurately about abnormal situations.