Panning for Gold Line funds in San Gabriel Valley
Local officials are hoping the MTA approves $80 million toward extending the rail service to Azusa and later to Montclair.
On the far eastern side of Pasadena, the Gold Line tracks run in the middle of the 210 Freeway and then, at Madre Street, they just stop.
The old rail right of way continues up the middle of the freeway and extends across the width of the Valley, roughly paralleling the 210. Hardly any freight trains use the corridor, and it's been decades since passengers rode those rails.
Public officials from across the San Gabriel Valley are hoping to change that soon. With an injection of $80 million from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officials say the Foothill Extension Construction Authority can seek state and federal funding and extend the Gold Line 11.4 miles to Azusa, a project estimated to cost more than $400 million.
Gold Line ridership: An article in Wednesday's California section about the quest for funding to extend the Gold Line said the current Gold Line from downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena has the lowest ridership of the MTA's four rail lines: about 23,000 a month. The ridership figure is per day, not per month.
Later, officials hope to add a second leg to Montclair and then a possible third leg to Ontario International Airport.
The quest for the money has reached a fever pitch. On June 26, the MTA board is set to vote on the agency's long-range plan. The Gold Line extension is in the "unfunded" section of the plan but needs to be moved to the "funded" portion to get the $80 million.
Habib Balian, the chief executive officer of the authority, offers a long list of pluses about the Gold Line: It has widespread public support; there's almost no controversy surrounding it; and the line is fairly easy to build because the old freight right of way is still there.
Officials in several cities along the route have been preparing development plans around the new stations, the idea being to create new transit villages along the route and channel the valley's growth there. Thousands of new residences are being proposed.
"Don't look at it as what you see today," Balian said on a recent tour of the largely industrial right-of-way corridor. "Look at what it will be in 30 years."
But the Gold Line has proven to be a tough sell elsewhere in Los Angeles County, where it is considered a train that will have low ridership that could take money from more worthy projects.
The Westside Cities Council of Governments met last month with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to try to persuade him that funding for Westside projects must come first.
Officials also aren't happy that some San Gabriel Valley officials have hinted they might fight the MTA and California Department of Transportation's congestion pricing plan for the 10 and 210 freeways and, in doing so, could cost the region $213 million in federal funds for new buses and improvements to Metrolink commuter rail service.
