Scoping out progress on Metro's Foothill Gold Line Extension

At the close of 2022, the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority announced that work is now two-thirds complete on the L Line's 9.1-mile, four-station extension to Pomona.

Slated to open by 2025, the project adds four new stations to the L Line in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, as well as a future eastern terminus next to the Pomona North Metrolink station. Additionally, the Kiewit-Parsons joint venture team building the project has been tasked with the construction of multiple new bridges, the reconstruction of at-grade crossings, and the relocation of a freight rail line which shares the same right-of-way.

Since reaching the 50 percent completion mark in June 2022, the Kiewit-Parsons joint venture team tasked with building the project has completed the relocation of freight tracks within the shared right-of-way, as well as the construction and reconstruction of nearly all at-grade crossings and bridges. Additionally, work has been completed on a majority of the traction power substations which will allow trains to run.

The L Line extension, the Measure M-funded light rail project to break ground, and is also being financed with state money and leftover Measure R funds from the Pasadena-to-Azusa extension.

Although the under-construction extension pushes the L Line's Foothill branch more than nine miles east, a lack of available funding has reduced the project from its original scope, which called for an additional three miles of track and two stops in Claremont and Montclair. 

As additional funding to complete construction was not secured by an October 2021 deadline, Metro and the Construction Authority are now seeking additional funds from the California State Transportation Agency to build the Pomona-to-Montclair segment of the project, which would allow the L Line to serve San Bernardino County.

“I want to thank our state legislators, county supervisors, Construction Authority and Metro board members, and San Gabriel Valley cities and organizations for supporting this funding application,” said Construction Authority chief executive officer Habib F. Balian in a news release. “The Pomona to Montclair segment is the final segment of a 25-station system that has been underway since the early 1990s. It is shovel-ready and can be completed across county lines into San Bernardino County in five years once funding is secured.”

That total 25-station segment would span nearly 38 miles, a distance which by itself would exceed the total length of most U.S. light rail systems. And that distance is set to grow yet again. After the completion of Metro's 1.9 Regional Connector subway, when the Foothill extension is to be merged into a single service with the A Line, passengers could ride roughly 60 miles to reach Long Beach.

• Foothill Gold Line (Urbanize LA)