Click above to see larger version of the photos. Credit: Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.
Another milestone last week for the Gold Line Foothill Extension project: the first light rail vehicles arrived at the $265-million 24-acre Gold Line Operations Campus in Monrovia. From Habib Balian, the CEO of the Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the agency building the line:
The full-service, state-of-the-art facility will be completed and turned over to Metro in early June, ahead of the previous delivery schedule of September with revenue operations anticipated to begin in Spring 2016. The early completion of the facility will allow Metro the ability to establish maintenance capabilities at the new Division 24 campus, as well as provide a place to accept and commission new vehicles for operations on the Foothill Gold Line and Expo Phase 2 Line projects in 2016.
As you can see from the photos, the new maintenance yard is significantly larger than the existing Gold Line yard in downtown L.A. that is adjacent to the Los Angeles River. The expansion was needed because Metro a lot more trains will eventually be operating on the Gold Line. Metro has 175 new light rail vehicles on order from Kinkisharyo — the new cars will be used throughout Metro’s light rail system.
The Gold Line Foothill Extension is extending the Gold Line from the Sierra Madre Villa Station in eastern Pasadena for 11.5 miles to the Azusa/Glendora border with six new stations: downtown Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, downtown Azusa and Azusa adjacent to Citrus College, Azusa Pacific University and the Rosedale residential development. The project is mostly funded by Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.
The Foothill Extension project is expected to open in the first half of 2016.
Categories: Projects