The following excerpt appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun on February 25, 2022. To read the full article (may require subscription). click here.

Montclair, Claremont ask state leaders to fund light-rail extension using budget surplus – San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, San Bernardino Sun

Crews install relocated freight track at Fulton Road grade crossing in Pomona for the Gold Line (now L Line) extension from Glendora to Pomona on Feb. 10, 2022. The extension of the LA Metro light rail line is funded to Pomona. But not to Claremont and Montclair, as planned. Those two cities began a letter writing campaign in February 2022 to get the governor and state lawmakers to pass along some of the state’s budget surplus for the last leg of the project. If funded, it could be built to Montclair by 2027. (image courtesy of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority)

By Steve Scauzillo

February 25, 2022

[excerpt]:

Both cities, as well as the board overseeing the current Glendora-to-Pomona extension of the L Line, formerly known as the Gold Line, have asked Gov. Gavin Newsom and key state lawmakers for $748 million to build the last leg of the project and push the light-rail service past Claremont in LA County to Montclair in San Bernardino County.

…

Adding the two stations would generate more than 50% of the new ridership for the electric-powered trolley line, while eliminating 53% of the car trips and 60% of the vehicle miles traveled. In total, the extension to Montclair is expected to add 7,700 new L Line boardings each weekday by 2028 and eliminate 14,900 car trips each day, mostly from the 210 and 10 freeways, the letters said.

The train would become an alternative to 3 million vehicle trips that are made each day in the Gold Line corridor cities, of which only 3% are made by transit, the officials said.

Montclair wrote that the station to be built at the city’s existing Montclair TransCenter would allow riders from a dozen bus lines and Metrolink passenger trains from San Bernardino to hop on the light-rail line that takes riders to Pomona, La Verne, San Dimas, Glendora, Azusa, Irwindale, Duarte, Arcadia, Pasadena and Los Angeles’ Chinatown, Downtown LA and East LA. The standard cost of a ride is $1.75.

To read the full article (may require subscription). click here.