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Angels Flight Railway Reopens After Deteriorating Wheels Replaced

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Angels Flight, the tiny downtown Los Angeles railway that was shut down last month because of a passenger safety issue, has reopened.

Operations resumed Tuesday afternoon after state inspectors approved eight new steel wheels that replaced older ones that were determined to have unsafe deterioration.

Inspectors ordered the hillside funicular to stop running on June 9 after finding that some of the wheel flanges, which are lips on the inside of the wheels that hold the cars on the rails, had been worn down.

Angels Flight operators said thousands of one-minute trips up and down the railway had worn down the parts.

The railway was shut down for nine years after a fatal accident. It reopened in March 2010 after an extensive overhaul of its operating and safety systems.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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