I knew I would be in for a long commute this morning, but man - it really turned out to be worse than expected.
My original plan - and I do this usually when it snows - was to take the 401 bus from my neighborhood at Chatfield and Wadsworth Boulevard to the Mineral light rail station. However, when I got out of the shower this morning, I heard the Mineral station was shut down due to a train derailment. Not only was the station shut down, but the Mineral/Santa Fe intersection was also closed, along with a stretch of Santa Fe from Mineral to I think about Bowles Avenue.
You can read about the derailment
here.
So I was unsure what to do, but heard light rail was still running from the Oxford station to downtown, which normally only takes an extra 10 minutes to drive to. So my husband gave me our 4-wheel drive truck and I headed out to Oxford. I decided to take Chatfield to Pierce, Pierce to Bowles, then Bowles to Santa Fe. Pierce was slow going, but traffic was moving about 25 mph and roads were snow packed and icy. When I finally approached the Pierce/Bowles Ave. intersection, however, the traffic jam started. Just turning right on to Bowles took an extra 15 to 20 minutes. Bowles was awful. It was basically at a complete standstill - move a couple feet, stop, move a couple feet stop. About 40 minutes later, I was finally able to turn left onto Santa Fe and head to the Oxford Light Rail station.
Santa Fe was like a dream - the road was slushy and a little slick, but not snow packed and no traffic jam, which was surprising. I cruised down to Oxford and luckily still got a parking spot without too much trouble. I was so happy when a train finally showed up and I was able to sit and relax a little.
Even though it was a long, frustrating and exhausting commute, I'm glad I stayed safe, people on the roads played it safe and most of all I'm glad no one on the derailed trains were injured.
My co-worker,
Charmaine Robledo, also is a light-rail user. We ended up on the same train heading downtown. You can read about her commuting adventure
here.
How did the train derailment affect you? Post your story and photos on YourHub.com
here, or feel free to comment below.