Is Metrolink Finally Breaking Out of Its 'Commuter Rail' Shell? - October 2024 Schedule Updates

My attempt at summarizing the "Metrolink Reimagined" phase 1 schedule changes taking effect October 21st, enjoy!

0:00 How are Metrolink & The MBTA similar?
2:20 Ventura County Line
3:18 Antelope Valley Line
3:39 San Bernardino Line
4:24 Riverside Line
4:52 91/ Perris Valley Line
5:16 Orange County Line
5:40 Inland Empire/ Orange County Line
6:30 What about Riverside and San Bernardino transfers?
8:40 outro

All background music produced by DJ Petesake
Metrolink board meeting videos can be found on their website.

[FlyingOverTrut]

This is amazing and such a positive change when improvements in transit around SoCal seem to crawl at a snail's pace.

[StripeyType]

the North/South station situation is a result of Boston's peculiar place in history. If it helps you feel any better, folks have been frustrated by the lack of a north-south rail connection for almost two hundred years.

[Pensyfan]

Good to hear that LA is rapidly developing their passenger rail. Despite their autocentric history, they're making incredible progress with light rail expansions and more frequent commuter rail. I'm from NYC, LA's main rival, and our governor just killed a tolling plan called congestion pricing that would have given our MTA an extra $15 billion in funding per year because some loud suburbanites made a few complaints. Moral of the story: always run more trains. Just subbed as I can't wait for the next video about the Riverside line to come out, as I also have my own quasi urbanist branch line review series named Fixing Your Branch Line.

[glowingfish]

One thing is, you said this is a "game changer", and I believe that sometimes small increases in surface can lead to a positive feedback loop. If better service attracts even a small amount of riders, it will create more demand, leading to more service, leading to more demand, etc. I don't know if these changes will specifically do it, but they might be what we are looking for!

[MakeItWithCalvin]

I ride the VC line from Burbank Airport to Moorpark and back when I fly to visit my parents and having more service on there going all the way to Moorpark is going to be VERY NICE! Gives me a lot more flight options which I am a huge fan of. One thing to keep in mind at Moorpark is there is the VISTA bus that you can take to Moorpark College, or take to the Thousand Oaks Transit Center to transfer to other buses. Also, in Moorpark is a small 4-track yard that they store equipment in, so terminating trains there made the most sense!

[SeanCakaBroncoFan]

Great video! At least Metrolink is trying to improve! But, even Tri-Rail, down in Miami, is a little bit more frequent compared to some of the Metrolink lines.

[onhiatus]

The reason why weekend trains have a “1” in front of the numbers is because some lines have can two of the same number. For example, there's a SB weekday train 352, when there's already an SB weekend train 352. This is why the weekend numbers have a 1 in front of it, so the current 352 will become 1352. Another thing is maybe the Riverside Line should have kept the afternoon train, make that 419, and maybe the proposed 419 as 417. They could also squeeze in one more outbound train in the evening, and number it 418. The riverside line can at least have Saturday service, two outbounds, two inbounds.

[climateanxiety]

I will be happy when I don't have to drive 30 miles to a station, when the tracks are two miles away.

[harysuper]

I am very happy with the updates to the OC line, the late night train on weekdays is a huge improvement. I wish we got one for Saturday or Sunday, I guess I can take advantage of the late train from Oceanside on the weekends.

[anitrain]

I agree that this is generally positive news. I live closest to the Perris South station and I am very glad to see the increased mid day options on the 91/PVL live. I did not even realize how many possible connections there were to the southbound IEOC line. The thing that bothers me though is the lack of service between Riverside and San Bernardino. There are only four daily round trips on this segment and they are all south in the very early morning and north in the evening. We need reverse directional and off peak service here so I can connect in riverside and continue going north. Also, that one later weekend service does benefit me, but I am still disappointed in the overall lack of weekend service. And not that it effects me, but I also think those additional SB line trains should go as far as Pomona so they can connect to the new light rail extension.

[RatchetFWD]

Bro got yuris revenge in here ? Thanks for the memories.

[frankmcilvenny]

They took away all commuters to board trains between 3 and 5pm from Orange county to Riverside. Huge gap when people getting off work.

[JoeyLovesTrains]

MBTA is pretty good a regional rail. Only issue is that it completely splits the north and south regions…

[mikeschumacher]

It's a step in the right direction, but only the first step. I wish weekend trains from Oceanside were better. How much are they planning to improve service before the '28 Olympics?

[mrvwbug]

Now if they would follow CalTrain's example and electrify. CalTrain also doubled their service frequency at the same time, going to 30min off peak vs 1hr and 15min peak vs 30min. The only commuter rail I know of with better frequency in the western half of the US is RTD, they run 15min off peak and 10min peak, but only on the A-line.

[enzoloconte]

I really like the idea of having the pulse schedule throughout the day but they are cutting too many important trips on the VC line and unfortunately I need to find another way to get to work. There's an outbound train at 6:30am then the next metrolink train is at 8:30pm. How does that count as pulse? That's a 2 hour gap and everyone is now late for work! also their last two inbound trains leave moorpark at 3:36pm and 5:11pm. Again how is this doing what they said it would???
Also big note about the codeshare trains. While you can board some surfliner trains on the VC route with a regular metrolink card, you can't do so if you travel with a bike.

[hackman-hackman]

Mostly good news, but as someone who also used Metrolink for my commute to LA - I hate that the frequencies during commuter hours have _decreased_

[tayloryoung]

Quick question: when service increases to covina on the san bernadino line, will that service length increase once the gold line is extended to pomona (north)?

[drgwdrgw]

I think those Covina turns will run mostly empty.

[willbowman]

I can actually use this to commute w/ my bike now 8)