Big tree trips up light rail train; bus called in
MetroRail had a weather-related problem yesterday evening:
Heavy rainstorms uprooted a tree at Hermann Park tonight, severing a MetroRail power line when the tree fell across the southbound tracks.
The tree snapped the cable about 8:45 p.m. near the Hermann Park/Rice University station along Fannin near Sunset. No one was injured.
Metro Police Sgt. Herbert Darby said the tree would have to be removed from the tracks before the line can be repaired and power restored to the system.
"It's a pretty good-sized tree," Darby said.
Kerry Vick of Victoria and about 10 other MetroRail passengers were stranded for about 90 minutes when their southbound train suddenly lost power.
[snip]
A Metro bus was later called to ferry Vick and the other passengers to their final destinations.
The line is expected to be repaired early this morning, officials said.
Good thing a bus was able to get through so Metro's passengers could continue their travels.
UPDATE 1: That above link now takes you to a "new" Chronicle story, telling us the line was repaired today around 10 a.m. blogHOUSTON gets very annoyed when the Chronicle puts an updated story in a link used for the original story, because the original story just disappears. Poof!
UPDATE 2: Metro has put out a news release:
A "bus bridge" was immediately deployed to provide service between the inactive stations. After safely transferring passengers to buses for the rest of their trip, METRO maintenance crews began removing the fallen tree. However, repair of the downed power line was delayed due to continued lightning in the area overnight.
Partial METRORail service resumed Tuesday morning, with trains running on a six-minute frequency between UH-Downtown Station and Wheeler Station and two-car trains running on a 10-minute frequency between Fannin South and Memorial Hermann Hospital/Houston Zoo Station.
A bus bridge, which requires a bus-train transfer, remained in effect between Wheeler Station and the TMC Transit Center for those traveling north and south between the affected METRORail section until full service was restored at about 10 a.m. today.
Thank goodness for those under-appreciated buses. And with all the cuts in bus service, Metro has lots of buses available to help out when the train becomes inoperable.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/04 06:35 AM | Print |
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