A Problem of Stopping Location

Eric Richardson

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — This isn't a Downtown specific issue, but I took this picture at 7th/Metro so I think it counts... It bugs me that when Metro is running 4-car trains on the Red Line they pull the train all the way to the end of the platform, instead of centering it as they do with 2-car trains.

That probably didn't make sense, so I'll try again. The Red Line subway platforms are six cars long. During peak hours they run 6-car trains that stretch over the entire platform. During off-peak hours, however, they run 2-car trains to Wilshire/Western and 4-car trains to North Hollywood.

Since the off-peak trains don't take up the whole space, it would seem logical to take into consideration where the people will be when stopping. And at pretty much all of the stations, the people will be in the middle of the platform since that's where the escalators and stairs deposit them.

The 2-car trains do stop in the middle of the platform, but 4-car trains stop all the way at the end. This means that no matter how many people are waiting for the train very few of them will be in a position to get into the front two cars. In the picture attached to this post you can see that there are quite a few people waiting down past the stairs, but no one back where I am (roughly where the back of the 1st car would be).

It would seem that this would be an easy problem for Metro to solve. Just slap some stickers up telling the 4-car trains where to stop, one car-length in front of where the 2-car trains stop.