317 days ago...
on October 10, 2012, the City Council and the Transportation Commission met with the OCTA in a special session to tackle the Ghost Train issue.5 YEARS ago, OCTA declared "It is imperative that we eliminate the Ghost Train effect right now"
At this meeting (video link) last October the OCTA delivers the some facts around the 20 minute mark. The OCTA Technical Memorandum gives only a couple immediate real-world solutions to this problem. Easy to implement, and affordable. Namely, slow the trains down, disconnect or extend the siding track. makes sense
Quickly after, the OCTA travels down the rabbit hole to la la land of Positive Train control, expensive, untested, and will take years to implement. Dispatch control, again, no timeline. It felt like the OCTA was using this horrible predicament to try to get us to cough up some cash for their pipe dreams.
At 33 minutes, OCTA stated that they would proceed to get this simple solution implemented. The engineering work would take 6 months to a year. OCTA promised to come back and report updates as to their progress.
By the way, at 1:21:00 Clint Worthington dishes out the facts.
So where are they with this work!?
We all sit for 70+ seconds every time this train doesn't pass. At 30+ trains passing a day, we are talking HOURS taken away from San Juan Capistrano residents. Beyond this being a major safety concern.
Stack this problem on top of the 74 interchange work congestion, and OCTA needs to fix this immediately!
Metrolink? OCTA? City Staff? Anyone? Please bring us all up to speed with what progress is being made. And give us clear timelines.
Patch's Article
City Meeting video here
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