A Thin, Life-or-Death Shield

Every section of Metrolink commuter train track that runs through residential areas ought to be fenced off. There have been too many tragedies in which children or adults have been killed merely for lack of some wire mesh. Such fencing is currently installed only after the railroad identifies “hot spots” where train engineers and sheriff’s deputies see patterns of dangerous behavior, or after someone is killed. That’s not good enough.

Metrolink says that it is ready to install fencing in all residential areas, as long as it has the funding to do so. This is surely achievable, given that transit systems in six counties can share the cost. In Los Angeles County, fence construction funds come from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Metrolink commuter trains run along 416 miles of tracks in Southern California, stretching from Oxnard to Oceanside. Metrolink officials say it would cost about $100 million to finish fencing the entire system; it would be substantially less for residential areas only, 40% of which already have been fenced. Metrolink officials say they will have a precise figure today about how many miles of Metrolink track in residential areas do not have fencing.

Many of the 41 deaths during the five-year history of Metrolink were suicides or the victims were in motor vehicles at rail crossings. But some were pedestrians, from children to the elderly. And fencing would certainly have prevented the deaths of Alexes Robles, 3, and her half-sister, Deziree Soto, nearly 2, who would never have been able to get onto the tracks in Upland last week had a fence been there.