The following is a letter to Metrolink riders from Metrolink CEO Stephanie Wiggins:
Dear Loyal Riders –
It’s hard to believe how much our lives have changed in just a few short weeks – and especially since last Thursday when Governor Newsom directed all except those working in essential services to stay at home for their own safety. We know many of these essential service employees – including nurses, doctors, first responders and even our employees – rely on Metrolink to get to work. And we are grateful for their commitment to keeping our community safe and functioning.
I promised in my email update last week that I would let you know in advance if we decided to make any temporary changes to our service as a result of COVID-19 (coronavirus). As of last Friday, our ridership is down around 80% systemwide – this lack of demand means a temporary reduction of our service levels can occur without the danger of creating crowding situations on our trains. This service reduction will happen the morning of Thursday, March 26, and will be in effect until further notice. Adjusted schedules are here.
In planning the temporary service reduction, we looked carefully at the ridership on each of our lines, and each of our trains. We built a temporary reduced schedule to ensure plenty of service during peak times for those who need it, and to ensure we maintain as many connections as possible. We did all this taking into consideration the important need for our riders to maintain appropriate social distancing from each other and from our valued conductors.
View Temporary Train Schedule
I want you to know that we were very careful in making this decision. We take seriously our role as a lifeline transportation service for our community. We also take seriously the need to keep both our riders and employees safe during this global pandemic. So, we will continue to do all we can to maintain the cleanliness and social distancing that’s required to minimize the spread of this virus while still providing a vital service. That includes more hand sanitizers on our trains, as well as the addition of more porters who board our trains to provide touchpoint cleaning throughout the day, in addition to the enhanced and more frequent cleaning we initiated a couple of weeks ago.
While we really don’t know what will be next as we navigate these uncharted waters together, know that we are committed to your safety, and to timely communication. To help ensure you have the latest information, we have created this landing page which contains our latest updates and schedules, plus links to schedule changes at other regional transportation providers. Texting “ML19” to “333777” will send you a link to the page so you can have easy access to it wherever you go.
With gratitude,
Stephanie Wiggins, CEO
Categories: Go Metro, Transportation Headlines
I will add that not only is the train slow through the old tunnel, but in a earthquake deadly. If they could replace or re-route around it, and then make a much straighter track line up into the AV, now there would be some time savings. In saying this I realize our lives will be forever changed by the covid-19 virus
God help us……And please be kind to each other…..
David Hardy…..we are doing social distancing……remember or has dementia set in. These are people too who are working there.
Jane, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Did you read my post? Were you responding to someone else? My post was in regard to upgrading a tunnel now that there is little ridership and less trains. Jane, please remember proper etiquette. Ask yourself, was what you wrote kind, was it relevant, was it necessary?
no impact if done now.
This would be an excellent opportunity to bring the Newhall tunnel up to speed. It is agonizingly slow and in desperate need of a major overhaul. Now is the time to start construction. There would be relatively