Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Metrolink Riders on the Track to Better Behavior : Transportation: Rail line’s ambassadors say people are coping better. Added cars have helped.

Chalk it up to post-quake stress.

The rookie riders from Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys who flocked to the rails as a means to get to work must have temporarily lost their manners. They stampeded their way onto arriving trains, they dueled over available seats, and they took no prisoners in fights over unattended newspapers.

This briefcase brigade, unhappy with having to set their alarms for 3 a.m. and missing the convenience of their cars, took out their frustrations on train personnel and each other.

Enter the ever-smiling Metrolink Ambassadors, whose job it is to appease and please. These men and women patrol the station platforms looking to comfort the disgruntled.

These thousands of new riders simply had no clue about train etiquette, the ambassadors offered benevolently. After all, you aren’t born knowing that you’re supposed to let people off the train before you board.

The good news from the ambassador front lines this week is that the pushy passengers have recovered their manners.

The shoving, cursing and bullying that ran rampant on the initial commuter trains from the north county in the days following the Northridge earthquake have given way to greater patience and understanding.

While there is still some mass herding that occurs when boarding passengers charge their way through those attempting to disembark, things have vastly improved, according to the ambassadors.

They said people are coping better with the situation and are showing each other greater courtesies. That, and Metrolink has added enough cars so riders no longer see elbows as their weapon of choice.

“At first, the people were a little rambunctious,” said Sam McLawyer, a Metrolink ambassador well-known among the regulars at the Burbank station, one of the busiest. “Each day the people have gotten much better.”

McLawyer blames the post-earthquake unruliness on “anxiety.” They were cranky about having to rise before dawn, mad at the inconvenience of not having traversable freeways, and irritated about having to spend up to five hours a day on a crowded train.

Train service was extended to Lancaster one week after the quake, more cars were added to the trains and, with the opening of more surface routes, fewer people are fighting for a seat on the train.

Metrolink ridership peaked Jan. 25, one day after service was added to the Antelope Valley, at 31,276. The Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley line carried a record 21,952 people that day. On Monday, the entire commuter train system carried just 21,645 people, including 12,362 on the Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley line. Still, the numbers dwarf pre-earthquake statistics when only about 1,000 people used Metrolink each day to get to and from Santa Clarita.

“The Santa Clarita bunch is the wildest,” said A Tuckwilkerson, a Lancaster resident who boards the train in Lancaster and rides it to Glendale. “They’re rude, they’re crude, they act like they own the train.”

“The people in Lancaster,” he added, “are too tired to be rude.”

Tuckwilkerson knows about being tired. He catches the 4:52 a.m. train out of Lancaster daily.

In their defense, Santa Clarita riders deny they are rude. They say they are just trying to make sure they get to work on time.

“I will not stand aside and let the 20 ladies behind me on,” said Bruce Rawitz, a Santa Claritan who has been a rail regular for more than a year.

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