Letters: Monorails work

Re “Blue Line earns deadly reputation for suicides,” Sept. 24

In the aftermath of the first oil crisis in the 1970s, I wrote to the now-defunct Southern California Rapid Transit District urging the development of a suspended monorail system. I never got even a form letter back.

Ultimately, monorail was rejected as being an “unproven technology” (try convincing Disneyland, operating since 1959, or Wuppertal, Germany, operating since 1901, of that). Instead, L.A. ended up building a proven-impractical system, a resurrection of the Red Cars that had failed. And, surprise, from the beginning of service there have been deaths.

Running a train on ground level and with grade crossings is folly in today’s traffic. In Wuppertal, it’s impossible to jump onto the track, and at Disneyland, it would be hard to jump in front of a train.

In both cases, there are no crossings, grade or otherwise.

Rick Van Dusen

Pasadena

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