Passengers evacuated after Metrolink train catches fire
Incoming Metrolink passengers exit their train at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.
A Southern California commuter train caught fire just after pulling into a station in Pomona on Friday, officials said.
More than 250 passengers on a Metrolink train headed from Los Angeles to San Bernardino were evacuated after a blaze was reported in the locomotive about 4 p.m., Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said.
The flames never made it to the passenger cars and no one was injured, Johnson said. Los Angeles County firefighters put out the blaze in about 15 minutes.
Passengers who were on the train boarded the next one and were delayed 90 minutes, he said. Rail service resumed at 5:10 p.m.
Johnson said that trains on the line would be delayed for the rest of the day. The burned train was sitting on the platform in Pomona, so only one track could be used. He said that train will be moved for repairs after rush hour.
Johnson said the locomotive that caught fire had been around since 1992, and that the old equipment is at least partly to blame for the incident. Metrolink is rolling out state-of-the-art locomotives starting later this year, he said.
“When you’re looking at these locomotives that have more than a million miles of track mileage on them, at some point systems are going to give out,” he said.
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