The nation’s longest light rail line is getting longer! Metro Board Chair Fernando Dutra announced today that the A Line Extension to Pomona will open on Friday, September 19.
The A Line Extension will add 9.1 miles of track and four new stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, and Pomona, connecting the people who live and work in these San Gabriel Valley cities with one another, Greater Los Angeles and beyond. Riders will be able to transfer between Metro and Metrolink at Pomona Station, giving everyone a new, faster way to ride between the Inland Empire and Foothill Cities corridor.
The extension will improve access to educational institutions (such as Cal Poly Pomona, University of La Verne, Mt. San Antonio College, and Pomona College among others), recreation centers like the Los Angeles County Fairplex (where cricket will make its official return to the Olympic Games in 2028!), as well as regional parks, museums, and historic downtowns.
The project marks the ninth project completed in Metro’s Twenty-Eight by ‘28 initiative, an ambitious plan to enhance the region’s transit infrastructure in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Even better: the A Line extension will give everyone an alternative to the 210 freeway.
The new stations are designed to make your trip easy, whatever modes of transportation you use. Each station will be equipped with bike sheds, EV chargers, vehicle drop-offs and park-and-ride facilities.
A little background: The Foothill Corridor was once served by Pacific Electric’s Monrovia-Glendora line, but rail disappeared from the region in 1951. In 1990, Metro’s predecessor, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC), began studying routes to return rail to the corridor, spurred by the purchase of a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATFF) right-of-way.
In 1998, the California State Legislature established a joint powers authority—the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority—to oversee building the extension from Pasadena to Montclair. The first section between downtown L.A. and Pasadena opened in 2003 and the first extension to Azusa, debuted in 2016.
In 2020, construction began on the soon-to-open section that extends the A Line to Pomona. This past January, the Construction Authority turned the project over to Metro for training and pre-revenue service.
Whether you ride Metro to commute, go to school, or simply explore, we’re very excited to provide you a new way of moving around the San Gabriel Valley.
Thank you, as always, for going Metro.
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Iam looking for this !
Change
From: “The nation’s longest rail line is getting longer!”
To: “The nation’s longest light rail line is getting longer!”
Thank you for spotting that! I dropped a word.
“ The nation’s longest rail line is getting longer”
Considering the numerous delays that affects both sides of the Lines now, that isn’t something to be proud of.
You were told numerous times that if delays happened south of Downtown once the Blue Line and Gold Line were tied together that now Pasadena and Azusa riders will now have to put up with delays that at one point did not need to be concerned, yet instead of building infrastructure around this, you decided to ignore it and now don’t even announce delays or incidents that happen.
Even Seattle who is actually building a rail line that could be continuous from Tacoma to Everett is actually playing it smart and splitting the line into 2.
So while I happy to see these stations finally open. Spare the BS that “ The nation’s longest rail line is getting longer!” is something that anyone should be proud about.
It is interesting to note that most of the delays/issues that have popped up on the A Line the last few months is on the side NORTH of downtown. Fully against splitting the line
And I’m fully for it. You just proved the point. These lines, when they operated independently, did not have to suffer from each others delays. Now if there is a delay on either side of downtown, the other side has to pay, but thanks for letting me know people in this county would rather conform with delays than to actually fix the issue.
Also, while it may not happen in our lifetime, the line will be split, but the split won’t be in Downtown, it will be in Pasadena instead.
Is it really one line if there are always 20 minute unscheduled layovers at Union Station?
Maybe a line that connects Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank will be built (perhaps to replace the BRT) that will make your prediction of a split at Pasadena happen, with the Foothill Extension being incorporated into an east-west line between Pomona and Burbank, while the remainder of the line could be a north-south line between Pasadena and Long Beach.
Hi John — we do swap operators at Union Station but that doesn’t take 20 minutes. If you’ve been on a train when switching operators takes us that long, can you please provide us with more information so we can investigate — time, date, direction of travel and rail car #. Thank you!
Steve Hymon
The Source
I really don’t understand why a stop was not created at Lone Hill ave (on the bridge). There is so much shopping in that area.
I just looked at Google Maps. All I’m seeing in the vicinity of the station are car dealerships. Unless Metro bought all that dealership land, it literally makes no sense to put a station where the closest shopping centers are Walmart and Costco. . . Places people are more than likely going to take their cars to. Literally just big box retailers that transit users while have to cross lots of concrete islands to get to.
The current location for the Glendora station will suffice. Though I wish it was along Route 66 rather than away from it.
Can Metro be consistent and always refer to this as “Pomona North” to match the adjacent Metrolink station?
The main/downtown station in Pomona serves a different Metrolink line as well as limited Amtrak trains.
The Station is in fact called Pomona – North, as I noticed from the signs as I passed by via Metrolink yesterday. Whether or not Metro is being proactive on the maps and signages on the currently opened stations is on them.
Yes, I did notice those signs a month ago. All other mentions (including this article) should say “Pomona North”.
Do we know what time the very first westbound run from Pomona will be? Will the media ride this ‘inaugural’ run? Or is it pretty much anytime that day?
Any special activities planned at Pomona or other new stations?
The A line should stop permanently at Pomona North for Metrolink connections to the IE. Spending a ton of money to basically duplicate Metrolinks route to Montclair. Once Metrolink ups service to 30 minutes all day (hopefully), connections off the A line are easy.
The money for the Pomona to Montclair section should go to the next line up on the list and get it move. Assuming ESFV line is financed, I would put this money on SE Gateway line and getting moving on it.
I would have also not wasted money on the Slauson Bikepath either- wasting a Metro owned ROW on this is tragic. That money should have also gone to SE Gateway.
It is good to see that all of the Metro M tax money raised in the San Fernando Valley is going toward rail transit in the Inland Empire while we continue to sit in unbearable traffic. Thanks Metro.
Given the length of this line, it seems odd that a 65 – 70 mph top speed isn’t being considered at this point on certain straight enough sections of track. Why not use the designed max speed of the trains? The breda and siemens LRVs can go up to 75 and 70 mph respectively and the kinkisharyos can go up to 65. That way the “slow light rail” would actually be more akin to heavy rail like service and make the most use of what’s being built. No rule explicitly prevents Metro from running at said speed so long as each crossing adheres to a minimum standard and the right-of-way is fenced off. Seems like a missed opportunity to get a bit of a speed boost / travel time saving. The distance between stations east of Lake is generally more than enough for this and there are few tight curves. I don’t understand Metro’s hesitation to do this. Dallas and St. Louis both run their LRT trains at 65 mph in some longer stretches with at-grade crossings.
Agreed, could easily run at 65 in the middle of the 210. Just like the c line it does 65 in the middle of the 105.
I’ve been a Glendora resident for 35 years and am thrilled to finally have a station open. Will September 19 be a free day on Metro?