Sacramento's light rail shut down for 4+ hours following crash

Light Rail commuters in Sacramento faced major disruptions to service after a light rail train collided with a cyclist on Sacramento’s busiest RT Light Rail line. An incident like this would cause major commuter chaos if it occurs along one of the proposed Surrey LRT lines.

According to ABC10 and the Sacramento Bee, the collision occurred at approximately 3:45PM after a cyclist in his 20’s rode into the path of a light rail train. The cyclist was rushed to hospital in critical condition, and Blue Line service was subsequently shut down in the area due to “impassable tracks”.

Sacramento Regional Transit was forced to set up a bus bridge as a result of the blocked tracks. Passengers reported waits of over 40 minutes, and photos showed bus bridge line-ups stretching for blocks. The collision also shut down a part of Sacramento’s 12th Avenue, snarling traffic during the PM rush hour.

Regular service was not resumed until 8:04PM, more than 4 hours after the crash occurred.

Did you stop running northbound trains at all? Waiting 40+minutes at 10th and k

— Robin Finnestead (@robinfinnestead) June 8, 2018

Surrey’s LRT proposal will be prone to collisions, shut-downs.

The proposed Surrey Light Rail Transit system will run at street level on segments of 104th Avenue, King George Boulevard and Fraser Highway. Incidents like this where LRT trains are involved in collisions with vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians can necessitate complete shut downs of that segment of the LRT system.

Once again, this incident highlights a major, fundamental flaw of the proposed street-running light rail system endorsed by TransLink, the Regional Mayors’ Council, and the City of Surrey. The proposed LRT lines run in the medians of major arterial roads, and would cross through several busy intersections at street level.

Any one of these busy intersections could be blocked and shut down if there is an accident.

SkyTrain for Surrey has called for the cancellation of the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT project, the conversion of the Surrey-Langley LRT into a SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line, and the construction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue (instead of an LRT).

With BRT’s ability to detour around accident areas, and SkyTrain’s ability to simply pass overhead, a rapid transit system built on SkyTrain and BRT would not be subject to total disruptions.

Surrey residents expect their future rapid transit system to be a trustworthy and reliable service. A street-running LRT system will not deliver one.