New video: take an aerial tour of the Gold Line extension to Claremont and Montclair

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Nice new video from the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the agency planning and building the 12.3-mile project that will bring the Gold Line east to Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona, Claremont and — with funding from San Bernardino County — Montclair.

The public is welcome to attend the groundbreaking for the project at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday at Citrus College in Glendora. Details:

The $1.5-billion project includes $1 billion in funding from Measure M, the sales tax ballot measure approved by Los Angeles County voters in Nov. 2016. Construction requires the complicated task of moving existing freight and Metrolink tracks and is forecast to be complete in 2026 with the extension opening in 2027. When complete, the Construction Authority will turn over the project to Metro, which will operate it.

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects

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16 replies ›

  1. okay this makes no sense, between Glendora and San Dimas station, no station? MTA, you need to have a stop at Lone Hill Ave.
    You have WalMart, Costco, Home Depot, Kohl’s, AMC, Barnes and Nobles, and tons of places to eat around the Lone Hill and Gladstone area. To top it off, the park n ride is already there under the 210!

  2. It’s unfortunate that the Montclair Station will be just a little more that 8 1/2 miles from the Ontario Airport. I know 8.5 miles is billions of rail dollars, but it’s sad that Metro never seems to look to the future with their plans. Maybe if they contact San Bernardino County they could have come up with the additional funding to actually have transit connections that make sense. You know, like connecting to major airports with the rail hub in downtown Los Angeles! I realize that the actual rail connection to LAX is STILL only theoretical after finishing the Green Line in 1995. That’s only 22 YEARS!!!

    • Hi Jim;

      Metro can only build projects in L.A. county. It’s up to San Bernardino County to fund an extension to Ontario Airport. A lot of officials talked about their support for that at the groundbreaking this morning for the segment to Claremont and Montclair. But, as you say, will take a lot of money to make it happen.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  4. With the Blue Line is annexed onto the route though the Regional Connector, this extension would put it at over 50 miles – the longest single light rail line in the world, unless another agency is up to the challenge.

    • And I see as a huge problem that I hope Metro can solve ahead of time. I would’ve preferred the Gold Line annexed with the Santa Ana corridor, which could be Grade Separated for good portion of the proposed LA county route than the unreliable, constantly delayed Blue Line.

  5. Is there a deadline for SANBAG to decide if they’re going to pay for the Montclair station?

    • Good question. Not sure–will try to find out from the Construction Authority. With utility work and much of the track relocation coming first, construction of the actual light rail line isn’t scheduled to begin until 2021 so it appears there’s time to get all the funding ducks lined up.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

      • On the West-side the NIMBY’s fought long and strong to kill the Expo Line and did delay it by over 5 years causing the cost to nearly double what the original cost would have been done. Now they are building an extension of the Purple line on Wilshire to Westwood. Also the Sylmar LAX line is back on the table and maybe by the time the Purple and the LAX line reach Westwood there will be demand to complete the line to the sea.
        With the Metrolink and Gold Line (soon to be Blue) line only closely parallels Metrolink from Pomana to Montclair it does allow for a good east – west connection without having to go to LA to transfer and go east again. The need and ridership is there.

        • Montclair Station today has a 1600-space *surface* parking lot and serves as a major hub for the Omnitrans bus network. There is also a bi-direcitonal peak M-F express bus to/from DT Riverside and UC-Riverside (RTA 204) that serves it. It also has a multi-lane connection (Monte Vista) to both the SR 210 and I-10 freeways. No other proposed Foothill Light Rail Station has these capacities already in place.

        • If I recall correctly, the only westside neighborhood with much opposition to Expo was Rancho Park. The ROW there is entirely in a residential neighborhood. Expo was put into 2 opening segments due to those delays.

  6. How nice!! A light rail line that shares the same right of way with METRO LINK for the majority of it’s extension. In addition both the 10 and 210 freeways parallel this extension plus Arrow Highway.

    But come to the westside where a freeway extension was canceled by Governor Brown yet huge commercial projects were constructed. Both Santa Monica Bl. and Sunset Bl. are grid locked eastbound from almost the beach through Hollywood and almost downtown. The reverse in the morning is almost laughable. I can only guess the MTA board member bribes are larger from those in the San Gabriel Valley because the westside is in dire need of relief but none is provided or planned.

    • The only parallel operation of the Foothill Light Rail Line (Marketed now as “Gold” but will be the “A-Train” to Long Beach when opened) is a short stretch from Pomona to the eastern edge of Claremont (where Metro stops funding the extension and San Bernardino *may* pay for anything further east.)

      It does this in part because there is an existing, intact right-of-way the government leaders in the SGV have rallied for service and have worked for decades to see this to fruition. Twenty years ago (in 1997!) John Fasana was arranging demonstrations of Diesel Rail Cars on these “Pasadena Sub” tracks that Metro’s predecessor LACTC had purchased in 1990.

      And because a perfectly good PE right-of-way from North Pomona along White and Huntington into Downtown Pomona was thrown away long ago when Interstate 10 was built and the Fairplex was expanded.

      What were the leaders on the Westside doing in the late 1990s? Using every methane, er sorry, method they could to stop the Subway from going west of Koreatown despite all models pointing to the gridlock you cite above. This continues to this day in the inability of Metro to use Prop A & C funds for tunneling; only R and M funds can be applied to this method of construction.

    • You need to get over this, which you repeat at every opportunity. Nobody wanted to see a freeway rammed through the middle of Beverly Hills and West LA. Besides, if it had actually been built, it would have been just as congested as Santa Monica and Sunset already are.