Commuter Train

Concerning the Orange County Transportation Commission refusing to buy Southern Pacific's right of way for use as a commuter train route unless voters approve a hike in the sales tax in November (June 24): How dare the commission hold the Orange County Transit District and the voters hostage! We need the proposed light rail that will be built on the right of way. It will run from Santa Ana to Buena Park, feed into rail systems in Los Angeles County and lessen the congestion on the freeways.

The 6:08 commuter train from Sydney was held up for 20 minutes tonight after a conductor found a naked couple making love in his compartment. Other passengers said the conductor pulled the emergency cord and told the couple that they had three minutes to get dressed and get off at the next station. The man pulled on his clothes, punched the guard three times and was arrested. The woman left the train without further incident.

Five masked gunmen clad all in black jumped aboard the last car of a commuter train and robbed six passengers before escaping in a heist that took less than two minutes, authorities said. No one was injured during the robbery at the Glenwood station on the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. One shot was fired. About 350 people were aboard, but only 50 to 60 people were in the last car.

The death of a man struck by a Metrolink train Tuesday morning has been ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The coroner said Sherwin Harry Isaacson, 76, deliberately walked in front of the commuter train as it passed through Northridge about 7:15 a.m. Isaacson, who died at the scene, lived in West Hills, the coroner's office said Wednesday. No one on the train, No. 104 to Los Angeles, was injured. The tracks were closed temporarily. -- Jean Merl

A tractor-trailer carrying cans of paint collided with a commuter train in New Jersey on Wednesday, injuring 10 people, officials said. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening, Nancy Snyder, a New Jersey Transit spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times. Two of the injuries -- to the train engineer and to a school crossing guard -- are considered serious, she said. The collision took place shortly after 8 a.m. on Main Street in Little Falls, N.J., Snyder said. A preliminary investigation indicates that the tractor-trailer failed to negotiate a tight turn.

An Amtrak passenger train bound for Chicago and a local commuter train crashed head-on just north of the nation's capital during a snowstorm Friday. At least 12 people were killed and a score were injured. A massive roar, apparently an electrical explosion, followed the collision as the two Amtrak locomotives and several other cars jumped the tracks. One Amtrak locomotive and several passenger cars from the commuter train were engulfed in flames.

Re "2 Die, Hundreds Hurt as Trains Crash Head-On," April 24: Automobiles, trucks and airplanes have seat belts. Why don't trains and buses (especially school buses)? How many of the dead and injured in Placentia would have suffered less if they had been wearing seat belts? Beyond the physical and emotional loss, consider the cost to Metrolink of all these insurance claims. Ed Erskine Woodland Hills Why isn't there a federal system of rail traffic control as there is for air traffic?

A groundbreaking rail safety reform bill cleared a key vote in the U.S. Senate on Monday, as lawmakers invoked the Sept. 12 Metrolink train collision that killed 25 people and injured 135. Senators voted 69 to 17 to take a final vote on the bill Wednesday. The measure requires more rest for railroad workers and technology that can stop a train in its tracks if it's headed for a collision. The House passed the bill last week, and the expected Senate approval would send the legislation to President Bush for his signature.

J. Miller's letter ("Congress' 'Gang of 6 Is the Real Threat,' Dec. 12) is a typical example of how the Clinton Administration has somehow concocted the conclusion that the Brady Bill will somehow put an end to crime in the county. Miller's shortsightedness has become evident if he thinks this smoke-screen legislation will make any difference in Orange County's crime problem. Just how many gangbangers buy any firearm legally? The Brady Bill's own authors have openly admitted that this will do "little" to stop crime and that it is just an important first step.

Before facing reporters the day after the catastrophic train collision in Chatsworth, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell called the agency's chief executive to make an unusual request. "I asked him to allow me to make a statement to rebuild public trust," she recalled, "and I told him we had to be honest and upfront about what happened." David Solow, she said, "agreed" with her plans to publicly acknowledge Saturday that a preliminary investigation showed the Metrolink engineer ran a red light before the commuter train plowed into a Union Pacific freight train.