Thank you for the research.

I really do hope we hear from some authorities about light rail safety. I ride it and feel safe, but I know others who won't ride it at night or at all. I would also love to see how our safety record compares to similar systems in other cities.

I would like to see more officers/ ticket checkers present. I rode for 2 weeks combined with a bicycle. Felt I was on my own in the Rancho Cordova area, a very weak link I might add. Granted it was nice of the dumpsterdiver to share his burritos with all aboard and the drug deal was a lesson in economics yet I have decided to ride my bike from Carmichael to old sac. Too much reality in just a few short weeks!

Most homeless and cheap riders will let you know that there are key times when ticket checkers are on board. And if you ride during rush hour, the sheer volume lends to the odds that your tickets won't be checked. Oh and John, you should've seen the lesson in Biology that i got from the bum that decided that he couldn't wait for the next stop, and peed in the back corner, on the doors.

I've heard of a number of situations involving the security force and groups of teens on the trains. Most of the bad stations are bad in the evening time. Rush hour is usually the safest time to be on the trains. Noon and late night should be avoided unless you cut an imposing figure. I do, but I still try and avoid eye contact or sitting in any but the first train, just to be safe.

The worst stations are Broadway, and most after city college. St Rose of Lima, and either of the Capital stops, 16th street, Alkali Flats, Del Paso, Swanson, and Watt/I-80.

If I were you, it's a good idea to invest in some pepper spray just in case. I also try to make my ipod as inconspicuous as possible.

I ride the light rail to and from work everyday. Downtown to Sunrise. If I leave work and catch the 6:15 or 6:30 train from 7th and Capitol, I can wait for the train and with almost everyday occurance, the following happens:

Someone is always trying to sell me an all day ticket when I approach the ticket machine. This person has a book of tickets and sells A LOT. I don't know if they are counterfeit or if they steal them from somewhere and they are making the money instead of Sac RT. If its going on there, I'm sure it's going on at other busy stops. So, RT is losing money there;

If I want a contact high, I go stand by the bench with the people waiting for the train for Meadowview. Sometimes it smells like its really good stuff;

Riding to work, the RT cops check for tickets AFTER 16th street when a majority of the passengers get off at 16th street. Doesn't make sense to me;

About once a week I encounter someone with a really bad case of Tourettes Syndrome, or so I hope. One time I saw a young urban family on the train with a bunch of kids trying to have a "Fun Day Out". After what they experienced with all the foul language going on, I can almost guarantee that they'll never take there kids on that train ever again.

Now, for the good things that I have seen:

I have seen grateful passengers with disabilities able to go on with there lives getting from place to place independently because of Light Rail. I have seen a multitude of instances of kindness between strangers. I have seen children laughing an giggling. I have seen a mother with 4 young children, a child herself, trying to keep the kids from bouncing all over the train and having strangers help her out by holding on to her kids after a full afternoon of Christmas shopping. How she did it I'll never know. I've seen light rail security get there in the nick of time on a train because the conductor/driver of the train was keeping tabs on someone who was not the nicest of individuals. I've seen people exchange recipes, smiles, courtesy and even a wave from one end of the train to the other.

All in all, I'm glad I have the train. Not only does it save me $80.00 a month in fuel and parking, I also have interesting stories to tell my work peers.

I have ridden rail transit systems in several cities in the U.S., including RT. RT's difference is that it is an "open" system, meaning there are no turnstiles or any sort of physical barrier to simply walking onto the trains. If RT were to convert to a "closed" system, with turnstiles that require a valid ticket/pass to go through, I think it would be safer and it would generate more revenue since cheaters would have to be more bold by jumping the turnstiles (modern technology would make that more difficult to get away with).

Washington DC's Metro system was clean as a whistle and had none of the riff-raff that our transit system either implicitly tolerates or is ill-equipped to handle.

Maybe if we stopped expanding light rail and employed Bus Rapid Transit instead (see http://www.nbrti.org), we could apply the millions saved towards increasing security presence, "closing" the system (meaning securing boarding locations with turnstiles and security measures), and enhancing the feeder bus lines (e.g., there is NO RT bus service in North Natomas west of I-5 at all, that needs to change). Maybe if we got serious about security and service, more people will ride it, which increases revenues to the system, which enhances services, ad infitium.

If you have never taken the light rail before then definitely do not take it by yourself or with only one person go with a group. Also if you are from Folsom or any other suburb area do not take it to Florin!! I went with my neighbor yesterday and the light rail was too crowded so we had to sit on opposite sides of the light rail and these 5 teenagers stole his i-phone and wallet they also had a gun and a knife on them. I am never going to take the light rail to Florin again. I don't know what we were thinking. I talked to the police yesterday for a good hour and she said everything is pretty much safe through downtown Sacramento but as far as south sac NO.

I ride the light rail to So Sac all the time. Only once I didn't feel safe. Two guys were on the light rail acting very suspicious. I kid you not; it was scary. They wore big jackets..... Then when another guy got on the light rail with an obvious mental disorder, talking to himself..... the 2 guys pounced on the guy. Heck, I wasn't afraid of the guy talking to himself. My heart stopped as the 2 guys rushed on him.

Turns out they were undercover officers riding the Meadowview light rail. Even though they were the two that scared me (and I am serious they really scared me) Turns out we should feel protected considering undercover officers are on the light rail .Heck, perhaps if they were not undercover - but wore their uniform- they could deter crime and allow passengers to feel safe. But again, I ride the light rail at night, sometimes to Meadowview sometimes to Florin from Downtown and while it is often too loud, some kids with drama (especially loud girls), talking on their cell phones yelling, gossiping, cursing... Heck, I'm often annoyed but I do feel safe.

What bothers me most about this is the fact that the train was crowded and no one seemed to intervene.

Totally agree with Keith's April 6th 2010 post. Also, having lived in various cities, my opinion is that as far as revenue goes, the Light Rail system was planned and built to fail from the very start. An open system simply means you will have a percentage of people who will not pay to ride...period. So to me, it's like the planners of Light Rail accepted this fact and built an open system anyway. There's one rider who told me he haven't paid to ride the train in about 2 years and have been ticketed by the officers only once. He states he rather pay for the citation because it's cheaper than paying daily for a system that allows people to ride for free. My second pet peeve with Light Rail is that it goes right along with traffic, and stops at the same traffic lights as the cars do. Light Rail is mass transit. So that means traffic stops for the train, ALWAYS! Traffic lights should change to give the train access across intersections. But overall, I think Light Rail is a good alternative to driving and I know it's also good for commuters who don't have access to a personal vehicle.

Totally agree with Keith's April 6th 2010 post. Also, having lived in various cities, my opinion is that as far as revenue goes, the Light Rail system was planned and built to fail from the very start. An open system simply means you will have a percentage of people who will not pay to ride...period. So to me, it's like the planners of Light Rail accepted this fact and built an open system anyway. There's one rider who told me he haven't paid to ride the train in about 2 years and have been ticketed by the officers only once. He states he rather pay for the citation because it's cheaper than paying daily for a system that allows people to ride for free. My second pet peeve with Light Rail is that it goes right along with traffic, and stops at the same traffic lights as the cars do. Light Rail is mass transit. So that means traffic stops for the train, ALWAYS! Traffic lights should change to give the train access across intersections. But overall, I think Light Rail is a good alternative to driving and I know it's also good for commuters who don't have access to a personal vehicle.

Conspiracy theory makes sense here: the elites that determine lite rail outcomes want to keep the criminal element on the transit system and out of their way. That is why the train doesn't operate in Folsom late at night and is why the lite rail system is and will continue to be uncomfortable, inconvenient and dangerous; because that's the way the elites want it.