SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Metrolink Breakdown Delays 175 Passengers
A Metrolink train on its way north broke down Monday morning as it approached the Irvine station, delaying 175 passengers for two hours and stranding hundreds more at stops farther along the way.
Train No. 605, bound from Oceanside to Los Angeles, apparently experienced a failure in the electrical units inside the locomotive, Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. The train broke down just before arriving at the Irvine station.
The breakdown was the first on the Orange County line since it started in March, 1994, Hidalgo said.
Hundreds of passengers who were to have departed from Irvine at 7:33 a.m., as well as those waiting for the train at Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim, Fullerton and Norwalk, were allowed to take Amtrak trains to their destinations without having to pay additional fares.
Meantime, an engine was rerouted from the Riverside line and hooked up to the disabled train.
Riders on the disabled train were then towed to their destinations. “The passengers were the real troopers,” Hidalgo said.
Train No. 605 carries nearly 500 passengers daily on the 87-mile route from Oceanside to Los Angeles, making eleven stops along the way.
The Orange County line is the fastest growing line on the Metrolink system, Hidalgo said.
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