Rail travelers delayed by gas leak

Thousands of commuters and travelers on Metrolink and Amtrak trains in Orange County were delayed Friday after construction workers accidentally drilled into a gas main, forcing a nearly 10-hour closure of a section of tracks in Irvine.

Trains for most of the day could not travel between Metrolink stations in Tustin and Irvine on the Orange County rail line, which runs from Oceanside to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, and its Inland Empire-Orange County line between Oceanside and San Bernardino.

The closure affected about 48 trains carrying an estimated 6,000 passengers along Orange County’s central commuter rail corridor, seriously delaying at least a dozen trains, said Denise Tyrrell, a Metrolink spokesman.

An Amtrak route between San Diego and Los Angeles also was cut off, with 15 trains stopped in their tracks at the Irvine and Santa Ana stations.

Buses shuttled passengers around the closed area.

The tracks closed about 8:15 a.m., just after the morning rush of commuters traveling north toward Los Angeles, and immediately stranded 700 commuters aboard three trains.

The shutdown also disrupted midday service and delayed commuters traveling north and south in the afternoon. The tracks reopened just before 6 p.m.

A chaotic scene unfolded about 5 p.m. at the Metrolink station in Tustin as hundreds of rush-hour passengers hurried between trains and convoys of shuttle buses.

A Metrolink worker stood on a traffic barrier above the crowd, barking instructions and answering questions from confused travelers.

“Everyone take a step back. You’re too close to the train,” warned a voice on the station’s public address system.

“A two-hour trip is taking seven hours; it’s frustrating,” said Erin Healy, 21, of Del Mar, Calif., who at 5:30 p.m. was getting off a shuttle bus at the Tustin station, en route to Los Angeles to attend a friend’s graduation ceremony. “I probably won’t get there in time.”

There were not enough buses available to quickly move thousands of Amtrak passengers around the closure, said Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

Dozens of Amtrak passengers at the Irvine transportation center south of the closed tracks were waiting at 12:30 p.m. as their train stood idle.

“I thought I was saving money, but now I wish I’d used my car,” said Jerald Beverino, 60, a commercial diver from San Diego who was traveling to Camarillo to visit his mother. He was considering heading back home. “I’m dead on the tracks.”

About 8 a.m., crews building an underpass at Jeffrey Road struck an 8-inch gas main while drilling about 50 feet south of the tracks, Southern California Gas Co. officials said.

Officials closed the tracks after confirming the presence of natural gas.

No injuries were reported.

Officials turned off gas service to a 360-unit mobile home park near the broken pipe and evacuated 30 residents after wind carried a pungent odor their way, said Jennifer Gonzalez, a Gas Co. spokeswoman.

The utility, which first estimated that service would be restored by noon, repeatedly pushed back that projection.

Trains were allowed to pass through the closed area once fire officials determined that the leak had been contained.

Crews repaired the broken pipe by pinching it off on both sides of the leak, but it involved digging “a lot deeper than they thought,” Gonzalez said.

Shirlean Holyfield, 43, of Irvine, who had taken the Metrolink train from work in Los Angeles and was waiting in Tustin for a shuttle home just before service was restored Friday, shrugged off the closure as a mere inconvenience.

“It’s a little hectic, but I’m glad to be home,” Holyfield said.

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tony.barboza@latimes.com

Times staff writer David Haldane contributed to this report.