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Amtrak, Metrolink plan through tracks at Los Angeles Union Station
“…planning to building…”
Perhaps, Mr. Vinson, but then Central Station would probably be gone and you’d be mourning it instead.
Mr. Larson, you beat me to it.
Back to the subject at hand, this sounds like a practical operational improvement that has been needed for generations. The extra back-up moves in and out of a stub-end terminal are great for adding operating interest and challenge to a model layout, but “interest” and “challenge” often equal “nuisance” and “inefficiency” in real life. I hope they can make it work.
The proposed project will benefit CaHSRA trains. Had through tracks been added to Memphis Union Station, perhaps Illinois Central would have moved their trains there and the Beaux-Art station would still be standing. Memphis would continue to have a more grand gateway.
Mr Streeter, I grew up changing trains at Memphis Union Station with my parents. So, MUS carries a lot of sentiment for me. Central Station is a non-descript structure in contrast to the Beaux-Art architecture of Memphis Union Station which would have been 102 years old now. (MUS opened just two weeks before the sinking of the Titanic.)
Hear this before. Hopefully they pull the trigger.
This is something that should have been done a long time ago. This will improve efficiency dramatically and this project will pay for it’s self in time saved as well as payroll cost’s.
And don’t forget the pix in Trains of a, what was it, Sante Fe E-unit with its nose perched over the edge?
What is a half-century or more to bring back the plans made of old…good as they were?
As a stub end, Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT) was properly named, but as a thru operation, Station is good while the acronym is LAUSy.
Long overdue, but wait this is California, there will likely be several court challenges and other ways to block the project. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for this happen in the next few years.
This is a HUGE proposed improvement. This will make for greater capacity on existing services. We need to get going with Las Vegas multi train service…as well as the South Wind restoration. This idea is a game changer.
Do they already have the design/engineering work done for this project? I though they may have had it already done or started?
So are you going to put up a set of crossing gates on the 101 to stop vehicles while a train crosses over or are you saying they will build an overpass over the 101 so they can connect with more tracks?
Unless I’m very mistaken, the original intent was to have LAUPT with all pass through tracks. The infighting between the three major railroads that would use the depot, the Depression, and cost considerations led the designers to eliminate that part of the design and go with all stub tracks. But Los Angeles has changed greatly in the past 75 years, with growth and buildings never imagined in the 1930’s. If this is economically feasible, great. But as another commenter noted, it will require buying plenty of real estate and demolition of many buildings, all of which will be very costly.
Very important step in turning the L.A. system into a true “network”. Due to politics and an ill advised public they’ve had to build the system “backwards” and piece-meal. Now, when the public can see its value it has become politically “in” to “get a piece of the action”. I was there, in L.A., in 1981! CHEERS!
I like your punmanship, Austin F.Larson.
I wish Denver had the sense to have done that while they could have.
Sixty years of consideration after realizing that the original design was stupid? Even the “standard railroad of the world” PRR realized that “Broad Street Station”, also stub-end, was not a good idea and tore it down!
Perhaps now planners in Chicago will realize what has been long missing at Union Station…?