Railroad Stations

A year has come and gone, and Karol Potter is dreading another long, hot summer. A loyal Metrolink rider, she complained last year that the bustling, sun-baked east platform of the Santa Ana train station lacked basic human comforts, such as shade, drinking water and restrooms.

Irvine Co. said it planned to build a high-rise office tower adjacent to the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego. The Orange County developer bought the site at the northeast corner of Broadway and Pacific Highway from Bosa Development for an undisclosed price. Construction could begin as early as mid-2008 and could take about 2 1/2 years. The size of the building has not been determined, but the site is covered by a development agreement that allows a height of 480 feet. -- Roger Vincent

Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing truncheons clashed with youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, French officials said. Nine people were arrested. Officials said about 100 people were involved in the melee at the Gare du Nord. Officers, some with police dogs, charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods and swinging metal bars.

More than 170 Metrolink passengers boarded the first 10 trains to pull into Orange County's 11th and newest station, which opened Tuesday in Buena Park. A contingent of City Council members, city staffers and county Supervisor Chris Norby arose early to take the first train that rolled into the Lakeknoll Drive station at 4:45 a.m.

Bomb blasts in a crowded Hindu temple and a railway station left at least 20 people dead and dozens seriously wounded Tuesday in the holy city of Varanasi, government officials and local media reported. One explosion rocked the Sankatmochan temple complex, one of the ancient city's oldest Hindu places of worship, as hundreds of people were inside. A short time later, two more bombs detonated minutes apart in a railway station, police said.

A downtown train station was closed for more than 12 hours Saturday after a small amount of what appeared to be mercury was found on a passenger platform, authorities said The Pershing Square station, which serves the Metro Red Line, was closed about 7 a.m. after officials responded to reports of a suspicious substance. Trains did not stop at the station while a hazmat team cleaned the spill. Officials are investigating how the substance got into the station, said Sgt.

Explosions at railway stations in southern Madrid killed 15 people on packed trains during this morning's rush hour, news agencies reported. Authorities had been on alert for possible Basque separatist violence ahead of general elections set for Sunday. But the cause of the explosions was not immediately determined. People living near the Atocha station reported hearing at least two explosions. Atocha is a huge downtown complex with a subway station and both commuter and long-distance trains.

When renovation workers stepped into San Bernardino's historic Santa Fe train depot about a year and a half ago, they found the ceiling choked in vines, the walls alive with bees and the tile floors covered with a 4-inch layer of pigeon droppings. It was a tragic scene considering that in the early 1900s, the depot was the hub of one of Southern California's most flourishing railroad towns.

Penn Station was evacuated and train service was halted for about three hours after a fire erupted in a transformer beneath the East River, causing chaos for thousands of travelers. The fire department said it responded to a transformer explosion and fire on tracks used by Amtrak in an East River tunnel in the early afternoon. Five people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, but there were no serious injuries. The cause of the transformer blast was under investigation.

Is this Los Angeles, the land of the Jetta and the Jaguar, the freeway interchange, the molasses-thick traffic? You couldn't tell it, at least on weekday rush hours, by going to Union Station. The place is full of commuters. None in a car. They pile out of subway stations on their way to work. They run, shoulder to shoulder, to Metrolink trains.