Train Stations

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.

Tu Nguyen has always preferred automobiles to trains or buses. But the Yorba Linda accountant's commute won't require that he keep his eye on the road after he and his fiancee move into Fullerton's SOCO Walk development this fall. Nguyen will leave his car in the garage and walk to the nearby Metrolink station to commute to Irvine. "I've only taken public transportation a few times in my life," said Nguyen, 28.

County leaders agreed Tuesday to negotiate the sale of a prime, 14-acre parcel to Anaheim for a future transportation hub near Angel Stadium and the Arrowhead Pond. The city has ambitious plans for the area around the sports venues, envisioning a mix of shops, lofts and office towers. In all, 9,000 condominiums and apartments and 7 million square feet of office and retail space are planned.

I read Michael Stoops' advice on beggars' right to ask for money ["Close Encounters With Acute Poverty," Her World, Sept. 25] with some horror. It's very well-meaning advice for the United States but dangerous to beggars in India. According to my colleagues in Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi and Calcutta, it's very helpful to buy packages of protein biscuits and oranges or bananas to distribute to beggars who will inevitably approach you in train stations and in the street. Many children, especially, have no other means to survive and little or no access to education.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was accidentally shot and a suspect was wounded by another deputy Thursday afternoon as the two officers attempted to intervene in a robbery on a Metro Blue Line train in Long Beach, authorities said. The suspect was shot in the neck and the bullet then struck the deputy in the arm about 4:30 p.m. during the scuffle on the platform at Long Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, authorities said.

A stampede Saturday at the main railroad station in India's capital killed at least five people and injured seven, the railways minister said. The five were crushed as thousands of passengers jostled for space on two platforms. "The victims were mostly poor migrant workers who wanted to travel to their home state to celebrate the Chat festival," Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav said.

Man, did you see that wigwag back there? You don't see many of those anymore." "And before that, three SW8s on a local ... " "And those EMD switchers ... " "Gaviota's at 339.5, right?" I catch snippets of this conversation among four casually dressed middle-aged men. The talk is lively, spirited, friendly--and completely incomprehensible. That's because it's in the coded language of those who live and breathe railroads.

In September 1963, Salvador Dali had an inspiration. An illumination. An epiphany. With a flash of cosmic certainty, the Spanish surrealist realized that the train station in Perpignan was the center of the universe. Since then, this French border town where the Mediterranean meets the Pyrenees hasn't been the same. It embraced Dali's idea and, in a mix of art and commerce that would have pleased the sly, entrepreneurial maestro, promotes itself as a shrine to a 20th century genius.

Steve Lopez's April 16 column, "A Perch High Above Cars, but Not Noise," brought to mind my own recent experience at the Gold Line Del Mar station. I was to meet a friend there who was riding up from downtown. Although the weather was pleasant, our noon rendezvous quickly heated up; this due to the platform conditions, not any romantic stirrings. It seems that in order to prevent loitering, the good folks in charge of the station want to make even waiting for a train uncomfortable.

The Yorba Linda City Council voted unanimously late Tuesday to reject a proposal to build a Metrolink commuter train station, citing concerns that it would bring noise and traffic to the area. The $7.75-million project, which was unpopular with nearby residents, would have included a Metrolink stop, passenger platforms, a bridge and parking lots on New River and Esperanza roads. Transportation officials have said the station is needed to help ease congestion on the Riverside Freeway.