Big rig takes out METROrail (updated 04-26-2005)
KPRC-2 reports that a big rig has taken out the city's world-class light-rail line:
METRORail was ground to a halt Monday after an 18-wheeler hit overhead lines and knocked out power to the light-rail train service, officials told Local 2.
Shortly before noon, the big rig accidentally hit the power line at Loop 610 and Fannin, cutting off the power for the line, which runs from Fannin to Reliant Stadium.
Buses were brought in to transport passengers to their destinations.
Crews are on the scene to repair the damage, which is expected to take up to six hours.
Buses certainly are a reliable and flexible form of mass transit, no?
Let's hope they get this fixed quickly. We wouldn't want Lucas Wall to be inconvenienced again.
UPDATE: The news report has been updated, and now states that only service south of Smith Lands station has been affected.
UPDATE 2: The news report has been updated again. Service was disrupted further north on the rail line by a collison with a vehicle at Main and Alabama.
UPDATE (04-26-2005): KTRK-13, KHOU-11, and the Chronicle have coverage.
Also, Don Gallagher, moderator of the Houston-MET Yahoo group, offers the following firsthand account:
Today, Metro had another torn down power line...make that TWO power lines! A flatbed truck tore down both the North and South bound power lines at approximately 11AM. All train traffic ceased between the Fannin Park N Ride and Smith Landing, both prime parking facilities (and the only one's actually).
At around 3:30 this afternoon, another MetroRail train hit a minivan at Alabama and Main. The train was heading South.
I drove by the Smith Landing station at around 5PM and saw total mayhem. There were Metro vehicles and personnel directing trains as the apparently were manually switching trains. It was difficult to see why until one passed by the station. The train involved with the second accident was sitting, out of commission at the station so they only had one side to load and unload passengers to be then transferred to buses. I was also puzzled as the trains there had very few passengers (Metro claims high ridership and it was rush hour).
After leaving that station, I drove down to the 610 interchange to see an even worse situation. Dozens of Metro vehicles and Siemen trucks all over the place and traffic shut down on both sides of the feeder road. All traffic was forced to make major detours and there were no signs in place to advise people how to get around this mess (remember, this had been going on for six hours).
Interesting that there were three workers sitting at the Reliant Station waiting for a train. No one seemed to have placed a sign there saying "Out Of Service". So they simply get to waste time also.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/05 01:08 PM | Print |
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