Engineering work is, of course, not sexy by definition. The significance of the announcement by the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority is that getting the engineering done to this point allows the project to potentially take the next step toward being put out to bid.
Of course, this comes with the usual caveat: The $1.2-billion project is currently unfunded. Metro’s Measure M sales tax ballot measure would supply most of the funds to get from Azusa to Claremont with a funding contribution from San Bernardino County needed to reach Montclair. If the Measure M fails, another funding source would need to be found.
A few details from the news release and the Construction Authority:
•The $1.2-billion project would extend the Gold Line for 12.3 miles from Azusa to Montclair.
•There will be a fourfold increase in parking. The parking totals for each station: Glendora (420 spaces); San Dimas (450 spaces); La Verne (600 spaces); Pomona (980 spaces); Claremont (1,260 spaces); Montclair (1,600 spaces).
•The train will have 24 street level crossings and 24 bridges over streets.
•All stations will have center platforms.
•There will be fare gates at all stations.
•Here are station location maps/diagrams:
Measure M would raise the countywide sales tax by a half cent and continue the Measure R half-cent sales tax beyond its mid-2039 expiration date to fund a number of transit, highway, local street, walking and biking projects and programs. Click here to learn more about the ballot measure, also known as the Los Angeles County Traffic Improvement Plan.
The Construction Authority is an independent agency set up by the state to plan and build the project. Once complete, it would be handed over to Metro for operation.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
My issue is the relocation of the Claremont Metrolink Station, should the Gold Line Station be built there instead? The Claremont Metrolink Station is perfect where it is currently.
The four-fold increase of parking is obscene. How can that be justified?
Hi Barbara;
For what it’s worth, the parking at the new Gold Line stations has been in high demand and many riders have written to say that driving to the stations is their best option if they want to take transit.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
This is the car-parking that has always been planned for these stations. In the case of Montclair, the parking is already built.
There really should be a stop at Lone Hill & Auto Center Drive. (between Gladstone and Lone Hill). You have tons of shopping there, including Costco, WalMart, all the car dealers, AMC theatre, In-N-Out, Best Buy, Kohls, Home Depot, Barns n Nobles, and lots more shopping in around that congested area. Besides, the Lone Hill Park N Ride lot is located near there too.
I made that comment in the EIR phase and in scoping, 15 years ago, and it was rejected because the cities didn’t want to relocate businesses (and give up the sales tax from those big box stores). The location would be a perfect place to put a 2,000 or 3,000 space parking structure, charging $4 or $5 a day, and be an efficient use of currently underutilized freeway capacity on the 57, which is totally overbuilt for what it serves.
I submitted that suggestion also. That location is having a bridge over Lone Hill, so how much harder to build a station into the bridge?
Sad to see that the stations that were to be double-platform are now cut to being one single center platform which will mean that crowding could result in dangerous situations in which customers may fall on to the tracks.
And I see that the turnstile-fetish has again taken hold over logical Light Rail station-design so that what could be an easy cross-platform transfer with Metrolink at Pomona (North)/Claremont/Montclair will now be a complicated zig-zag done with little regard for desire lines or efficient passenger movement.
Also my compliments for who ever decided that surface car storage between the stations at Pomona (North) must be preserved at all costs. Perhaps the station could be sponsored by the company who invented the Frogger game?
Speaking of another ‘boring, unsexy’ project, why haven’t we seen any details on the Metro board awarding the Red/Purple line A650 car refurbishment to Talgo?
How hard will metro be pushing to get San Bernardino County to fund the Montclair Station?
Well hopefully SANBAG does not come out with some silly deal that that Omnitrans and other transit agencies have done in the past. For some stupid reason on their part, Omnitrans and SANBAG seems to be caught in their own dream that the folks in San Bernardino County never feel the need to go to Los Angeles or Pasadena. San Bernardino County owes its stagnant development to Los Angeles, yet they are the first ones to pull out of any deals to bring transit to the county. In a lot of Metro’s documents they simply state Claremont as the terminating station because they will have to deal with San Bernardino County with the funding for projects beyond the county line.