Light rail disruption on the Campbell line

Hundreds of light rail riders got delayed this afternoon after a fatality occured on the light rail track at the Leigh Avenue crossing between Fruitdale and Bascom stations. A male on a scooter ignored crossing gate warnings and got struck by an oncoming light rail heading south at about 3:45pm.

At the collision scene:

At Fruitdale Station as people get off light rail and transfer to a bus bridge.

The bus bridge continues to Bascom Station where riders transfer again to light rail.

See here for KPIX's helicopter footage of the scene.

While the light rail is smaller and lighter than trains like Caltrain, the light rail can be deceptively fast. Riders and pedestrians should never ignore gate crossing warnings. In the Campbell section, the light rail trains do not blow horns (which isn't loud anyway compared to Caltrain) and can travel up to 50 mph. The disruption continued into the evening at around 8pm when VTA announced that service has been restored.

Bus bunching

One of the major factors contributed to today's collision on Santa Clara Street is bus bunching, which is when a number of buses travel in a pack because of some late buses. Hours after the collision today, bus bunching continued on the line 22 in both directions throughout the afternoon.

Even though service on the Santa Clara Street east of downtown has a combined frequency of 6 minutes (lines 22 and 23), it is often unachievable because of bus bunching, especially on line 22. Bus bunching forces passengers to wait longer for a late and crowded bus, and makes the next bus that comes minutes after underutilized. Buses could end up leapfrogging each other.

Observations made after the collision:


While on a westbound 22 bus, it goes past a 22 bus (a non-articulated bus) just before downtown San Jose.


On the same bus at Santa Clara and 1st, the bus is about to pass another 22 bus stopped right in front.


The collision occurred at this location at Santa Clara and 23rd. Just a few minutes after this picture was taken, a pedestrian got hit on a crosswalk at Santa Clara and 24th by a turning car. This area is not particularly safe for pedestrians.

For the past 8 years, with all the wrong priorities, VTA has yet to implement a system that provides real-time bus arrival predictions. Such systems are already in use by Muni in San Francisco and AC Transit's BRT lines in the East Bay. Real time arrival predictions are valuable for riders in areas where service is less reliable or on lines that don't operate on a strict timetable (like the 522).

VTA bus collision on Santa Clara St

About two hours ago, an eastbound VTA line 22 bus rear-ended another line 22 bus on Santa Clara Street near 24th Street. About 6 or 7 passengers got injured.

VTA presents preliminary findings on light rail derailment

At last night's board meeting, VTA General Manager Michael Burns presented preliminary findings on 3/21 light rail derailment. Below are the key slides of the presentation.









Simulation of the Incident:













Actions taken:





On the day of the incident, the southbound platform was open for service and the northbound track was closed. Normally, trains should stop outside of the crossover and wait for the other train to exit the single track area. At the time, the train involved in the derailment entered the crossover and stopped on top of a switch. The operator then reversed the train. Afterwards, the rear two axles got routed onto the crossover track, which caused the train to derail and hit a power pole. There was a northbound train stopped on the single track segment more than 600 feet south of the crossover.

According to Burns, the derailment caused over $1 million damage to the light rail vehicle.

At San Jose Inside, one of the passengers wrote a blog post about the derailment and complained that the VTA operator was of no help to passengers. Currently there's is no clear instruction during an emergency inside the VTA light rail cars. On BART, emergency information is prominently displayed by the doors. On Muni, which Michael Burns formerly ran, also posts emergency information in the center section of each light rail car.

Temporary single tracking is not an unusual practice at VTA

The crossover that was the site of last Friday's derailment has been used in the past for single track operation.

The crossover was built around 2002 to faciliate construction of the Vasona line. The construction of the track junction at Children's Discovery Museum station required single tracking through the area. Also, it required VTA to reduce light rail frequency to every 15 minutes. At that time, because of funding shortfall, VTA already approved reduction of light rail service from every 10 minutes to every 12 minutes.

After construction of the Vasona line, the same crossover was used again for single tracking during the construction of carpool lanes on highway 87 in 2005. The freeway construction required rebuilding of railings adjacent to light rail tracks.

Tamien station partial closure and bus bridge

The retrofit to the southbound side of the platform is complete. The northbound side is now closed for construction. New signs have been placed to notify riders about the temporary loss of northbound service.



Friday's derailment prompted VTA to stop single tracking in the area. A bus bridge has been set up between Curtner and Convention Center to provide northbound access at Tamien. Earlier today, there were supervisors at Tamien to make sure buses come on time.

The bus bridge goes from Tamien directly to Convention Center via the freeway. There's no bus bridge service for Virginia and Children's Discovery Museum stations even though they're completely closed for construction.

Tamien station is now closed in the northbound direction

Due to the train derailment last Friday, which damaged the crossover north of Virginia station, VTA no longer operates on a single track to serve Tamien station. For the next few weeks, light rail will not stop at Tamien in the northbound direction until the completion of the platform retrofit there. Trains however will stop at Tamien in the southbound direction.

VTA is operating a bus bridge between Curtner and Convention Center stations.

VTA blames human error for light rail derailment

Two VTA employees are on administrative leave after a train derailment last Friday night at a scissors crossover north of Virginia Station. VTA has ruled out mechanical failure as the cause of the derailment.

For more than a month, trains have operated on a single track in the area in order to serve Tamien station, which is undergoing platform retrofit while remain open to passengers. Virginia and Children's Discovery Museum stations are currently closed during the platform retrofit construction.

An employee is stationed at the crossover to oversee the single tracking operation.

When the train was derailed, it hit a power pole and the first two axles of the train were on top of the opposite crossover track. According to photographs and some eyewitness accounts, it is plausible that the southbound train encountered some problems while on the crossover. VTA is still investigating this incident.

Amgen bike race to impact transit in San Jose

Tomorrow, the Amgen bike tour (stage 3) is scheduled to end at the San Jose City Hall in the afternoon. In San Jose, the tour will be routed through McKee, Toyon, and Piedmont, then again Piedmont, Mabury, Taylor, 2nd St, St. James, 3rd St, and Santa Clara. Riders should anticipate delays on routes serving along those streets.

Around the Valley

Yesterday, a low floor bus on line 68 was spotted in Morgan Hill at Main and Hale transit center. That bus was crowded and was running late.

According to the A-frames placed at the station, Palo Alto bus transit center will be closed from 10:30am to 4:30pm this Sunday due to the Amgen California bike tour. VTA line 22 and SamTrans KX and 390 will make a detour and stop in the west side of the train station on Quarry Road. VTA line 35 and SamTrans 280 and 281 will stop in the east side of the train station on Lytton Avenue. Service to Stanford Shopping Center on these lines will be canceled on that day.


For the next few months, VTA will continue to operate on a single track between Tamien and Virginia stations as Tamien is undergoing platform retrofit. VTA personnel are located at the crossovers (south of Tamien and north of Virginia) to oversee the single track operations. Along with the personnel is a light rail car at each crossover. These cars act as a place to rest and as a way to transport the crew to and from the crossover.


At San Jose Diridon Station, both MST line 55 and VTA line 168 provide express service to Gilroy. MST is partnering with a vineyard to develop locally grown bio-diesel by planting two kinds of mustard seeds.

Recently, passengers with luggage were spotted waiting on Cahill Street south of San Jose Diridon Station at about 5:00pm. For the last six months, passengers have been waiting at the same spot in the morning to board a Megabus to Los Angeles. Apparently, Megabus adjusted its bus schedule and has added an afternoon stop in San Jose for a bus to Los Angeles.

However, the Megabus website still shows the old schedule in the schedule section. The new trip time is visible only by using the "Search and buy" box. Not a good business practice for a company that wants to compete in a market where people tend to either fly or drive.

VTA resumes light rail service

During the 5pm hour, the light rail track on 1st Street was reopened and the first train went through. However the roadway on 1st Street remains closed to all traffic. The demolition of the fire damaged building is still ongoing and the construction equipment supporting the damaged structure is occupying the roadway.

Buses are expected to be rerouted off 1st Street at least for Saturday.

Earlier in the day, VTA operated a free "bus bridge" to connect the light rail service at Civic Center and Children's Discovery Museum. VTA also brought its mobile command post to 1st Street to supervise the bus bridge operation and other bus reroutes.

Downtown fire interrupts light rail

An early morning fire in an empty building on 1st Street near San Fernando Street caused VTA to shutdown light rail service in downtown San Jose. Because of the damage to the building, VTA will not reopen light rail in Downtown until Friday evening when the building is demolished.


1st Street is closed.


Buses that normally run on San Fernando instead run on Santa Clara Street. The fire caused the closure of westbound lane on San Fernando Street between 3rd Street and Market Street.


VTA operates a "bus bridge" shuttling passengers between Civic Center and Children's Discovery Museum stations, stopping by most of the light rail stations in between.


Light Rail operates between Winchester and Santa Teresa stations as one line, similar to the operation during the Grand Prix race. However in the afternoon VTA operates some trains through downtown on 2nd Street.

In downtown, VTA staffers in yellow vests directed passengers to the bus bridge and rerouted bus routes. Many of the staffers were originally scheduled to assist passengers to the new bus service implemented Monday.