Ventura County Line

Ventura County Line
The Metrolink station at Chatsworth
Overview
Status	Operating
Locale	Greater Los Angeles Area and Ventura County
Termini	Los Angeles Union Station East Ventura
Stations	12
Service
Type	Commuter rail line
System	Metrolink
Operator(s)	Metrolink
Daily ridership	3,950 (2012)[1]
Technical
Line length	70.9 miles (114.1 km) (average length between stations: 6.445 miles)
Character	Elevated and surface-level
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Operating speed	39.22 mph (63.12 km/h) (average for trains that travel the full line length on Mon-Fri)
hide Route map Legend Coast Starlight to Seattle Pacific Surfliner to San Luis Obispo East Ventura Oxnard Camarillo Moorpark Simi Valley Santa Susana Tunnel Chatsworth Northridge Van Nuys Burbank Airport–South Antelope Valley Downtown Burbank Glendale Los Angeles Union Station San Bernardino 91/Perris Valley Orange County Riverside All stations are accessible This diagram: view talk

The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system.^[2] The line is the successor of the short lived CalTrain commuter rail line.

Schedules[]

Metrolink trains on the Ventura County Line ran weekdays only until Saturday service was added on May 29th 2021, mostly during peak commuter hours, and so with limited midday service. From Union Station to Downtown Los Angeles (as of July 2011):

East Ventura

• six trains total at peak hours, in the peak direction only (3 south-AM; 3 north PM) each weekday, running to East Ventura station (in the community of Montalvo) — northern end of line.

Moorpark

• four trains each weekday run to Moorpark Station (far western Simi Valley) — also station for Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. Trains of the six East Ventura runs also stop here.

Chatsworth

• three trains each weekday run to Chatsworth Station (western San Fernando Valley) — major transit hub, with the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, the Metro G Line and Metro Local valley bus lines, the LADOT Commuter Express service; and buses from Santa Clarita Transit, and Simi Valley Transit. Trains of the six East Ventura and four Moorpark runs also stop here.

Airport

• All 17 trains per weekday from Union Station stop at Hollywood Burbank Airport (900 numbered series).
• All 16 trains en route to Union Station per weekday stop at Hollywood Burbank Airport.
  • Only three trains per day originate in East Ventura. The remaining 13 trains originate from different points along the Ventura County Line.

Other service[]

Service is augmented during midday and on weekends by the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner line, serving most of the Metrolink stations on the Ventura County Line.

Airport

Additional airport shuttle service operates between Union Station and Burbank Airport–South station as the Hollywood Burbank Airport Line—BUR. Metrolink numbers Airport Line trains in the 900 series.^[3]

Tracks[]

The line operates between Moorpark and Los Angeles Union Station on tracks owned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – the Ventura Subdivision from Moorpark to Burbank Airport and the Valley Subdivision, the Valley Subdivision from Burbank to Glendale, becoming the River Subdivision into Los Angeles Union Station. It uses the Coast Line of the Union Pacific Railroad between Moorpark and Oxnard and into Ventura where the Santa Paula Branch splits from the rest of the Coast Line. The East Ventura Station and layover facility are on the Santa Paula branch line.^[4]

History[]

The railway was originally constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad as their Coast Line, connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco. The Montalvo Cutoff between Burbank and Ventura via the Simi Valley was built in 1904, bypassing the old line further to the north. Caltrans ran commuter rail service over the line very briefly in 1982 and 1983, but CalTrain was unsustainable due to a number of factors.

In 1990 the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, predecessor of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, acquired a portion of the right of way between Los Angeles and Moorpark from Southern Pacific and transferred it to the newly-formed Southern California Regional Rail Authority for commuter service.^[5] The line began operations in 1992 as one of Metrolink's original three routes, with service from Moorpark to Los Angeles Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. Service was extended to Camarillo and Oxnard in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake, then to East Ventura in 2002.

A trial service on Saturday was tried in 2020 for this normally weekday only line.^[6] Weekend service began on May 29, 2021, with one round trip between Moorpark and LA on Saturdays.^[7] Amtrak operates through the corridor on Sundays.

Accidents[]

2008 Chatsworth train collision[]

At 4:23 p.m. on September 12, 2008, 25 people were killed in a collision between Metrolink commuter train 111 and a freight train. At least 130 people were injured, with at least one dying later at a hospital. The crash occurred on the Ventura County Line near Heather Lee Lane, south of the Ronald Reagan Freeway(SR-118) and east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Both locomotives, the leading car of the commuter train, and seven cars of the freight train were derailed.

2015 Oxnard train derailment[]

On February 24, 2015, according to Oxnard Police Sergeant Denise Shadinger, a Metrolink commuter train traveling from Ventura County to Los Angeles hit a road vehicle near Oxnard, California; she initially said there was an unspecified number of injuries. The incident was reported at 5:44 A.M. Three cars derailed, at least one vehicle was fully engulfed at some point, and the three derailed cars were on their sides; the locomotive was still upright. Little but scorched, mangled wreckage in an intersection and on the tracks was left of the truck; Oxnard Fire Department battalion chief Sergio Martinez said the driver fled the scene unhurt but was found and taken into custody. News helicopters and footage from ABC affiliate KABC showed footage of triage tarps lying in the 5th Street (SR 34) where on-scene firefighters were treating victims and monitoring the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in a tweet, acknowledged the incident and stated they were launching an investigation.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]} The train engineer died a week later and 29 others were injured. A week after the incident, an Amtrak train collided with a vehicle in the same area as the first crash.^[14]

Stations[]

Station	Connections	Address	Location
Ventura—East		6175 Ventura Blvd, Ventura 93003	Ventura	Ventura County
Oxnard	Amtrak: Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner	201 E. 4th Street, Oxnard 93030	Oxnard
Camarillo	Amtrak: Pacific Surfliner	30 Lewis Rd, Camarillo 93010	Camarillo
Moorpark	Amtrak: Pacific Surfliner	300 E. High St, Moorpark 93021	Moorpark
Simi Valley	Amtrak: Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner	5050 E. Los Angeles Ave, Simi Valley 93063	Simi Valley
Chatsworth	Amtrak: Pacific Surfliner Metro:  G Line	10040 Old Depot Plaza Rd, Chatsworth 91311	Chatsworth	Los Angeles County
Northridge		8775 Wilbur Ave, Northridge 91324	Northridge
Van Nuys	Amtrak: Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner	7724 Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys 91405	Van Nuys
Burbank Airport—South	Amtrak: Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner Walkway to Hollywood Burbank Airport	3854 W. Empire Ave, Burbank 91505	Burbank
Burbank–Downtown	Metrolink: Antelope Valley	201 N. Front St, Burbank 91502
Glendale	Metrolink: Antelope Valley Amtrak: Pacific Surfliner	400 W. Cerritos Ave, Glendale 91204	Glendale
LA Union Station	Metrolink: 91/Perris Valley Antelope Valley Orange County Riverside San Bernardino Amtrak: Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, Texas Eagle Metro:  B Line  D Line  J Line  L Line FlyAway to LAX	800 N. Alameda St, Los Angeles 90012	Downtown Los Angeles

References[]

External links[]

Route map:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ventura County Line.

• Belmond, Sylvie (March 10, 2006). "Commuters praise trains, grade crossings improved". Simi Valley Acorn. Retrieved October 10, 2006.
• Metrolink Schedules
• Ventura County Line Route Map — on OpenStreetMap