# L.A. Blue Line Suicides



## WhoozOn1st (Sep 24, 2013)

Try to overlook the technical errors (4 light rail lines, not 6; operators, no conductors, etc.)...

Blue Line earns deadly reputation for suicides - http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-blue-line-suicides-20130924,0,1792452.story

"Patricia Mayes was navigating a Red Line train into the Hollywood/Highland station when a young man climbed down from the subway platform and lay across the tracks.

"In the split second before impact, they made eye contact. Then Mayes did as she had been trained.

"'You pull the emergency brake, then turn your head away,' she said. 'The train won't stop in time.'

"For more than a year, Mayes couldn't bring herself to drive again. When she finally did, her face grew pale and her hands sweated and shook as she passed the station where the crash had occurred.

"Such deaths on Los Angeles' six light-rail lines, which average about 5 million monthly boardings, are relatively rare. But the Blue Line is the exception. The 22-mile line connecting downtown Los Angeles with Long Beach has long been considered the deadliest in Southern California. Since 1990, nearly 120 people have died along the line — 31 by suicide — more than all other lines combined."




Blue Line inbound at Pacific Coast Highway, 10-12-08, during AU Second Annual Gathering. (WhoozPhoto)​


----------



## sechs (Sep 26, 2013)

There are six LA Metro rail lines: Red and Purple, Blue and Expo, Green, and Gold.


----------



## WhoozOn1st (Sep 27, 2013)

sechs said:


> There are six LA Metro rail lines: Red and Purple, Blue and Expo, Green, and Gold.


Red and Purple are subway; heavy rail. Four LIGHT rail lines.


----------



## Bob Dylan (Sep 27, 2013)

LA's Version of the Golden Gate Bridge! The Operators ought to get Hazardous Duty Pay for this Line!


----------



## John Bredin (Sep 27, 2013)

WhoozOn1st said:


> sechs said:
> 
> 
> > There are six LA Metro rail lines: Red and Purple, Blue and Expo, Green, and Gold.
> ...


Considering that the story starts off with a Red Line incident but is mostly about the Blue Line, I think the writer was trying to put the Blue Line in the context of the *entire* Metro rail system, heavy and light, so that six lines is the right number.

Calling them all "light rail" is a very minor, and in my experience very common, error. When someone calls a commuter train "light rail," *then* I'll start laughing.


----------



## trainman74 (Sep 27, 2013)

There was a correction to the story published the next day -- but it was only correcting the statement that the Blue Line is entirely at ground level.


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 27, 2013)

The Blue Line is like an interurban morphed into light rail. It runs all the way to Long Beach and the roll signs are "Los Angeles" and "Long Beach" instead of the more specific signs used by most transit vehicles, like how SEPTA has headsign "63 & Girard." I've always wondered why the cars have a gold stripe along the side if they're Blue Line, not Gold Line. Weren't the original cars painted differently?


----------

