Update, 8:30 p.m. Tuesday: Repairs are still underway on the Metro Gold Line, which will run every 20 minutes through close of service this evening. Customers should please check back here at The Source or on Metro’s Twitter handle, @metrolosanageles or @metrolaalerts, for service updates, which will be issued before tomorrow morning’s commute.
Update, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday: Here is the plan for the afternoon peak service on the Metro Gold Line: Trains will continue to run every 20 minutes throughout the line, sharing the southbound track (i.e. the downtown Los Angeles and Eastside track) at Lincoln/Cypress, Heritage Square and Southwest Museum stations. All trains will have three cars in order to handle more passengers. Please use the entire platform to help speed up the boarding process and find more seats.
Supplemental bus shuttles will also provide express service from Union Station to Highland Park during the afternoon rush–from about 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Shuttles will travel northbound only, direct to Highland Park, where customers will have to disembark and connect with northbound Gold Line trains if headed to Pasadena.
It’s already been said, but bears repeating: we are grateful for your patience and understanding this evening as we work to restore regular service as soon as possible so we can provide normal service for tomorrow morning’s commute.
Please continue to follow here at The Source, or on Twitter @metrolosanageles or @metrolaalerts for additional updates.
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Work last night on repairing the overhead wires on the Gold Line bridge over the L.A. River. Photo: Metro.
Update, 9:37 a.m.: Extended bus shuttles from Lincoln/Cypress and Heritage Square to Union Station have been cancelled. Gold Line trains continue to share the Downtown/East L.A.-bound track at Southwest Museum, Heritage Square and Lincoln/Cypress stations. Longer, 3-car trains will remain in service to accommodate customers. On behalf of Metro, we’d like to thank Gold Line riders for their patience as crews make emergency repairs. Please follow us on Twitter @metrolosanageles, @metrolaalerts, or check back here at The Source for the latest service updates.
Update, 6:28 a.m. Tuesday: As work crews continue to make repairs to the power supply system between Lincoln/Cypress and Chinatown Station, Gold Line trains will run with 3 cars every 20 minutes from end to end, sharing the Downtown/East LA-bound track at Southwest Museum, Heritage Square and Lincoln/Cypress Stations.
Trains traveling northbound from Atlantic Station will depart at 7:05, 7:25, 7:45 a.m. and every 20 minutes until further notice. Customer traveling southbound from Sierra Madre Villa will depart at 7, 7:20, 7:40 a.m. and every 20 minutes until further notice.
Supplementary bus shuttles are also available from Heritage Square to Union Station and Lincoln/Cypress to Union Station to prevent overcrowding. Damages to the power lines are still being assessed. For the latest service updates, please check back here on the Source or follow us @metrolosanageles or @metrolaalerts.
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Update, 9:45 p.m.: Repairs to the overhead wires continue. For those planning on taking the Gold Line on Tuesday morning: we are currently assessing the extent of the damage and length of time needed for repairs. Customers should please check back here at The Source, or on Twitter @metrolosangeles or @metrolaalerts, for the latest updates.
Update 7:52 p.m.: Delays continue on the Metro Gold Line, which will run approximately every 25 minutes until close of service this evening. Delays are due to damage to the overhead power supply system incurred earlier this afternoon on the northbound track near Heritage Square Station. As a result, trains are sharing the Downtown/East L.A.-bound track between Lincoln/Cypress and Southwest Museum Station. Crews are set to work throughout the night on necessary repairs.
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The earlier post from 5 p.m.:
The Metro Gold Line is currently experiencing major delays due to damage to the overhead power supply system that occurred at approximately 5 p.m. this evening south of Heritage Square Station. Since then, trains have been sharing the Downtown/East L.A.-bound track between Lincoln/Cypress and Southwest Museum Station.
Metro is providing supplemental bus shuttle service northbound direct from Union Station to Highland Park Station. Gold Line customers at Union Station can board buses in Patsaouras Plaza. Additional alternate routes between Downtown L.A. and Lincoln Heights/Highland Park can be found here.
The incident is currently under investigation. Metro will provide updates as they become available. For up-to-the-minute service alerts, please follow @metrolosangeles or @metrolaalerts.
Categories: Service Alerts
Everyone —
Thank you for your comments and for riding and writing. As my colleagues have written, we know this hasn’t been easy on your commutes.
We are taking a look at all the comments we receive on the blog and other social media and forwarding to the appropriate staff members so that they can review the response time and what worked and didn’t work as well as it could have.
Again, thank you,
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Wait till the new extension is open and the rain comes. It’s going to get worse – count on it.
Why on earth does this keep happening to the Gold Line? This is only a 14 year old line and this sort of thing should NOT be happening. Is Metro investigating why this occurred? Because it bodes poorly for any other light rail under construction.
It is my guess that customers going to East Los Angeles are not getting shuttle service because we are a minority am I correct I find no other explanation
Hi Cesar;
The reason shuttles are not running on the Eastside segment is that ridership is that tracks in both directions are open to train service and ridership is heavier on the Pasadena segment, which is twice as long as the Eastside segment and has more stations. Hope that helps explain it and thank you for your patience during the repairs.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
I just want to know why customers going to East Los Angeles are not being offered any shuttle service as we end up having to wait 3240 minutes for the train to arrive and once it does we are packed in there like sardines I keep on calling customer line at MTA but they’re unable to offer an explanation as to why if you are going towards Pasadena you are being offered shuttle service wild customers going to East Los Angeles or not
Thoughts, Comments and Suggestions:
Dear Metro,
As most of us who are daily riders on the Gold Line know, things break down and frequently need repair work on the Gold Line. And by now, a large percentage of us, while never thrilled to encounter these delays, have learned from past experiences that METRO will provide some type of alternative or contingency plan. However:
(1) PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE have METRO representatives speak slowly, clearly and distinctly into the PA system. The system and the speaker are bad enough. But when someone rushes through the announcement, only bits and pieces of vital information can be heard. And if one of the Metrolink trains just happens to be departing/arriving at the same time, nobody on the platform is going to hear anything! So repeat the announcement. (the above reply by Lucy Jarrad has a similar theme)
(2) Bay 3? Bay 1? Alameda side??….. it doesn’t take much effort for somebody from METRO to hold a sign and lead a group to the boarding area, or for a METRO representative to be VISIBLE on the platform instructing people where to go to catch the shuttle service being provided. Monday night’s response was pathetic! No METRO representatives were around when everything started falling apart. Frustrated commuters were just standing around, wondering where to go or what was happening!
(3) The morning trains are already filled with more than the usual amount of commuters. We do NOT need or want additional homeless people riding the Gold Line for free as either half of their belongings or bodies are spread out occupying 2 to 4 seats at a time. Freeing up those seats would allow paying commuters a chance to board much more rapidly.
Rather than have LA County Sheriffs check for valid fares at Union Station, where the majority of commuters are exiting and now waiting even longer to make the connection as the fares are being verified, please “suggest” to the LA County Sheriffs to actually wait on the platforms at the end of the lines or do a quick walk through to remove these sleeping homeless. Homeless do not exit at Union Station! They simply laugh in the face of the system and Sheriffs as they ride the trains back and forth.
(4) WHERE do we catch the shuttle to HIGHLAND PARK? (I would have asked for the location of the direct shuttle to Sierra Madre Villa station, but it appears to have been removed, just in time for rush hour. What a coincidence.)
Anna, Lexi… I’m sure you both read this and can provide us some updates and send these suggestions to the appropriate departments.
And where do we catch these alleged buses? I ended up sharing a cab with four other South Pasadenans last night, after spending an shuttling back and forth between platforms and stressing about getting my daughter at daycare in time.
The Metro Trip Planner feature and nextbus are great bookmarks to have on your phone if you use public transit regularly. I saw the mess up on the Union Station platform, turned around, hopped the 487 bus across the street, I was only 20 minutes late getting home, and didn’t have to stress.
What’s with the organization of info on this page? Could you spare a date stamp? And possibly put in order so newest info first
There hasn’t been an update since this morning. Will there be an update for the afternoon rush hour?
Yes, please check the post, which now includes updated information.
You can also receive further updates via Twitter @metrolosangeles.
Thank you,
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
Machines break down, I get that and I think most folks do. Its an inconvenience, but I think all understand.
What I DON’T get is the utter lack of communication. There are some TV screens at the Union Station platform, why isn’t the updated information there? I learned of the bus only when I called Metro to find out what was going on. He told me Bay 3; but I read here it was Bay 1. Why doesn’t Metro CS know the latest info?
the announcements at Union are awful, nearly unintelligible. Speakers need to be upgraded, and on BOTH sides. Speakers need to speak clearly, loudly and REPEAT what they are saying. But having updated info on the TV screens would be best, then the information can be clearly seen & interpreted.
In such a horrendous situation as rush hour pandemonium, there should have been a Metro rep on the platform to help folks navigate their options, which may have included taking normal bus service back home. There should have been a TEAM of Metro staff to help everyone understand options.
When those trains came in; because there was such a backlog, it was like the last helicopter out of Hanoi. People were frustrated, tired and not on their best behaviour. The lack of communication/information or mis-information only fed all the frustrations.
Communication is a super simple problem to solve with TV logs on the platform, for the least amount of money and the greatest return on investment.
Curious question: does the MTA have a pool of reserve shuttle bus drivers for such unanticipated train breakdowns? What do these drivers do during non-emergencies?
Hi Morris,
No, we do not hold buses in reserve.
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
Anna Chen:
Then how does the MTA get these emergency shuttle bus drivers and buses at a moment’s notice??
The MTA has neither reserve bus operators or buses. When a bus bridge is requested operators are mainly pulled from bus lines creating a service delay on those lines. The only time buses are scheduled for bus bridges is when there is advanced notice, week end maintenance for example, or a prolonged delay anticipated at least a day prior.
1) It would be helpful if the monitors on the Gold Line platform provided current status and info vs. service alerts that are over and done; and 2) we need an update at 5:00 am the next day, not at 6:30 when it is too late to formulate a Plan B (btw, not everyone uses Twitter). I try to hang with the inevitable public transportation issues, but am already concerned about even more logjam problems when the new section of the Gold Line opens.
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback, and we’re definitely looking into improving the way we put information out.
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
It would be nice if folks are told what is going on. I think people understand things break down, but when you are kept in the dark it is really frustrating. Another thing, the variable message at Allen Station still is telling you about delays on August 4th — almost two months ago — instead of the ones happening today. So frustrating.
The first twitter message of the current gold line problem was 14 hours ago. How long does it take to fix or replace an overhead line? And couldn’t you get the local TV stations to report on serious Metro disruptions in their traffic reports? It would have been nice to hear about the problem before I left for work instead of when I transferred to the gold line at union station.
> Why dues the gold line keep breaking?
My guess would be copper thieves or poor maintenance.
Can you please include a general description of what caused the damage? For example: hit by a truck, struck by lightening, tree limb fell on wires, attacked by aliens, or fell of the poles as a train went by. When you don’t, at least on the Gold line at the moment, people think that it is failure of an aging system. If it is something else, people won’t blame Metro.
I left work at 5 pm in downtown L.A. Today and did not get home in Duarte until 7:40 pm. No one at metro gave us clear information while we waited and waited for a bus at Union Station, bay 3, then we were moved to bay 7, waited there for another few minutes. There certainly was a lack of communication at Metro. No supervisor at the bay levels at Union Station, no clear instructions, just a run around. We finally started moving on the bus shortly after 6 pm. We were told we would get dropped off at Southwest station, and would be able to catch the Goldline to proceed to Pasadena. We then arrive at that station, get off the bus only to discover there is another delay on the train. The bus driver allows us to get off the bus only to get back on, then dropped off at Highland Park station, what the heck… again, no supervisor around, just a run around. Then a group of us see a train coming and we run to catch the train, we finally get moving to the Pasadena area around 6:45pm. I’m so disappointed and frustrated. I know things happen, but it would have been nice if there were some supervisors to direct passengers clearly.
The shuttle did not load at bay 3. It loaded at bay 1. Then, the driver got caught at a roadblock because she got lost. This is terrible. Why dues the gold line keep breaking? Been trying to get home for over 2.5 hours. Now stuck on the bus. Have a toddler with me.
Suggestion: please ask the officers handling crowd control at Union station gold line entrance explain that there are buses. I didn’t know and we waited like 20 min for a train that is taking a 10min break at every stop. Things happen, but I’d have gladly taken the bus!