Antelope Valley Line

Antelope Valley Line
The Palmdale Transportation Center
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Metrolink
Status	Operating
Locale	Northern Greater Los Angeles Area
Termini	Los Angeles Union Station Lancaster
Stations	11
Operation
Opened	1992
Owner	Union Pacific (track)
Operator(s)	Metrolink
Character	Elevated, underground, and surface-level
Technical
Line length	76.6 miles
Track gauge	1,435mm (4ft 8½ inches)
Route map Legend Lancaster Palmdale Vincent Grade/Acton Via Princessa Santa Clarita Newhall San Fernando Tunnel Sylmar/San Fernando Sun Valley Ventura County Line Downtown Burbank Glendale Union Station San Bernardino Line 91 Line, Orange County Line, Riverside Line

The Antelope Valley Line is a commuter rail line that serves the Northern Los Angeles County area as part of the Metrolink system. The line is presently more rural in character because it travels through the sparsely populated Soledad Canyon between Santa Clarita and Palmdale, serving the small community of Acton along the way. The line began service in 1992, and was called the Santa Clarita Line at the time. It was one of three original lines in the Metrolink system along with Ventura County and San Bernardino lines.

The route initially ran from Los Angeles Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Clarita station. The railroad had plans to extend the line north to the Antelope Valley in 10 to 15 years after inception; these plans were expedited in 1994 following the Northridge earthquake. The earthquake caused the collapse of the freeway connector of State Route 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway) onto Interstate 5 (the Golden State Freeway) in the Newhall Pass, forcing all traffic to use the parallel 2 lane truck bypass that was unaffected by the quake. Immediately after the earthquake the Southern California Regional Rail Authority decided to extend the line to help relieve the traffic bottleneck. The line between Santa Clarita and Lancaster was running two days after the earthquake. The Antelope Valley line began running on Saturdays and Sunday in September 2007.

The Antelope Valley line currently has 30 trains on weekdays, 12 trains on Saturdays, and 6 trains on Sundays. The July 2011 timetable shows 9 weekday trains LA to Lancaster, 1 to Palmdale, 2 to Via Princessa and 3 to Santa Clarita. Typical weekdays with 2 reverse-commute (peak) trains are "squeezing" the schedule between peak trains (8 trains) going into or out of downtown. Morning southbound and evening northbound express trains between Palmdale and Los Angeles with stops at the Santa Clarita, and Burbank stations were added to the schedule in May 2011. ^[1]

The Antelope Valley Line serves 11 stations

1. Union Station, Los Angeles
2. Glendale, Glendale
3. Downtown Burbank, Burbank
4. Sun Valley, Sun Valley
5. Sylmar/San Fernando, Sylmar/San Fernando
6. Newhall, Santa Clarita
7. Santa Clarita, Santa Clarita
8. Via Princessa, Santa Clarita
9. Vincent Grade/Acton, South Palmdale/Acton
10. Palmdale Transportation Center, Downtown Palmdale
11. Lancaster, Lancaster

Future Expansion

• Metrolink is considering increasing midday service along Antelope Valley line but the added service is unlikely to be added until Metrolink receives their orders for more cab cars, coaches, and locomotives which are scheduled to be delivered in Late 2008. ^[2]

External links

• Metrolink Schedules
• http://www.openstreetmap.org/?relation=1172222 – Route on OpenStreetMap

References

1. ^ "Metrolink riders now have faster commutesKABC-TV, May 9, 2011. Accessed October 30, 2011". http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8120068. 
2. ^ Daams, Kristopher. "Midday Bus Service to Union Station Planned", The Signal, May 28, 2007. Accessed May 29, 2007.