Decked out with holiday decorations, music and the Christmas spirit, the annual Holiday Toy Express won't be making a stop at the Chatsworth Station due to a tight Metrolink budget.
"It was a difficult decision for the board," said spokesman Jeff Lustgarten. "Given the costs associated with doing the holiday train and a shortage of finding corporate sponsorship that could be thrown into the fray, we just couldn't do it this year."
Instead, Metrolink has spent its holiday shopping money on things like implementing positive train control as a present for its customers, a system that uses GPS-technology to prevent train-to-train collisions and other accidents caused by human error.
Lustgarten said the express, which was also part of the Los Angeles Fire Department's Spark of Love toy drive at the Chatsworth Station, typically costs a few hundred thousand dollars.
But he added that the Holiday Toy Express could return to bringing Christmas cheer right on time next year.
"We're certainly not ruling it out going forward after this year," Lustgarten said.
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