A freight train crashed

head on into a MetroLink commuter train in my county (not exactly close to where a live, but it was on my way to near where I live). A few questions pop into my head when hearing about this:

• There are commuter trains in Southern California? OK, I knew that, but our public transportation is awful. If you don’t have a car you’re basically screwed unless you enjoy taking 2 hours to go 20 miles.


• Why do they share the same tracks? Is it because Southern California is too lazy to build a separate system. My answer: yes. Laziness has cost a few lives.


• Aren’t train operators a little more aware of things like this? I’m not talking about the drivers themselves, but those who control the track switches and such. Surely they have a fancy sensor/computer system that keeps track of where trains are.

I think if Southern California had a train/subway system like the NYC area does (which includes suburbs in New Jersey, Conneticut, and Upstate New York) SoCal would become an incredibly desirable place to do business, to work, and to live. It would change the way we’re sprawling all over the place, and help establish city centers that work (like Manhattan, which is an incredible city).

Perhaps frequent seismic events prohibit extensive subways, but maybe a monorail would be nice? A Segway Freeway? Horses?