Ventura County Line

Ventura County Line
The Metrolink station at Chatsworth
Overview
Type	Commuter rail line
System	Metrolink
Status	Operating
Locale	Greater Los Angeles Area and Ventura County
Termini	Los Angeles Union Station East Ventura
Stations	12
Daily ridership	3,950 (2012)[1]
Operation
Operator(s)	Metrolink
Character	Elevated and surface-level
Technical
Line length	70.9 miles (114.1 km) (average length between stations: 6.445 miles)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Operating speed	39.22 mph (63.12 km/h) (average for trains that travel the full line length on Mon-Fri)
Route map Legend East Ventura Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to San Luis Obispo, Coast Starlight to Seattle Oxnard Camarillo Moorpark Simi Valley Chatsworth (  Metro Orange Line towards North Hollywood) Northridge Van Nuys Burbank-Bob Hope Airport      Antelope Valley Line Downtown Burbank Glendale Los Angeles Union Station      San Bernardino Line      91,      Orange County &      Riverside Lines

The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system.^[2]

Schedules

Metrolink trains on the Ventura County Line run weekdays only, mostly during peak commuter hours, and so with limited midday service. From Union Station—Downtown Los Angeles (as 7-2011):

East Ventura

• six trains total at peak hours, in the peak direction only (3 south-AM; 3 north PM) each weekday, running to East Ventura station (in the community of Montalvo) — northern end of line.

Moorpark

• four trains each weekday run to Moorpark Station (far western Simi Valley) — also station for Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. Trains of the six East Ventura runs also stop here.

Chatsworth

• three trains each weekday run to Chatsworth Station (western SFValley) — major transit hub, with the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, the Metro Orange Line (6-2012) and Metro Local valley bus lines, the LADOT Commuter Express service; and buses from Santa Clarita Transit, and Simi Valley Transit. Trains of the six East Ventura and four Moorpark runs also stop here.

Airport

• six trains each weekday run to Burbank-Bob Hope Airport (900 numbered series).

Other service

Service is augmented during midday and on weekends by the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner line, serving most of the Metrolink stations on the Ventura County Line.

Airport

Additional airport shuttle service operates between Union Station and Bob Hope Airport station as the Burbank-Bob Hope Airport Line—BUR. Metrolink numbers Airport Line trains in the 900 series.^[3]

Tracks

Metrolink owns the tracks between Moorpark and Los Angeles Union Station. It uses the Coast Line of the Union Pacific Railroad between Moorpark and Oxnard where the Santa Paula Branch splits from the rest of the Coast Line. The East Ventura Station and layover facility are on the Santa Paula branch line.

History

Service on this line began in 1992 as one of Metrolink's original three lines, with service from Moorpark to Los Angeles Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. The line was extended to Camarillo and Oxnard in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake, then to East Ventura in 2002.

Accidents

2008 Chatsworth train collision

At 4:23 p.m. on September 12, 2008, 25 people were killed in a collision between Metrolink commuter train 111 and a freight train. At least 130 people were injured, with at least one dying later at a hospital. The crash occurred on the Ventura County Line near Heather Lee Lane, south of the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway and east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Both locomotives, the leading car of the commuter train, and seven cars of the freight train were derailed.

2015 Oxnard train derailment

On 24 February 2015, according to Oxnard Police Sergeant Denise Shadinger, a Metrolink commuter train traveling from Ventura County to Los Angeles hit a road vehicle near Oxnard, California; she initially said there was an unspecified number of injuries. The incident was reported at 5:44 A.M. Three cars derailed, at least one vehicle was fully engulfed at some point, and the three derailed cars were on their sides; the locomotive was still upright. Little but scorched, mangled wreckage in an intersection and on the tracks was left of the truck; Oxnard Fire Department battalion chief Sergio Martinez said the driver fled the scene unhurt but was found and taken into custody. News helicopters and footage from CNN affiliate KABC showed footage of triage tarps lying in the 5th Street (SR 34) where on-scene firefighters were treating victims and monitoring the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in a tweet, acknowledged the incident and stated they were launching an investigation.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} The train engineer died a week later and 29 others were injured.

2015 Amtrak collision

On Sunday, March 1, 2015 around 8 p.m. an Amtrak train bound for Los Angeles struck a passenger car on the tracks at a grade crossing adjacent to the intersection of 5th Street and Pleasant Valley Road. Two people were in the car and were able to move out of the train's path before the collision. No one on board the train or in the car was seriously injured.^[10] The collision occurred between the same two stations as the Oxnard Metrolink derailment less than 6 days earlier; less than a mile from the Camarillo Metrolink station.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ventura County Line.

• Belmond, Sylvie (March 10, 2006). "Commuters praise trains, grade crossings improved". Simi Valley Acorn. Retrieved 2006-10-10. 
• Metrolink Schedules
• Ventura County Line Route Map — on OpenStreetMap