The following excerpts appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin on February 15, 2023. To read the full editorial (may require subscription), click here.
Opinion: San Gabriel Valley again gets the shaft on funding Gold Line to Montclair – San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Construction project on the L Line (formerly known as the Gold Line) where it passes through San Dimas on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
By Larry Wilson
February 15, 2023
[excerpt]:
When late last month the Gold Line failed to receive any of the state funding its overseers had applied for to able to extend tracks to the light rail’s logical near-term terminus in Montclair, just east of Claremont, spilling over the county line into San Bernardino, finally closer to its long-term logical end at the Ontario airport, had the transit needs of Los Angeles once again prevailed over those of the San Gabriel Valley?
That’s what many in our part of the world are saying has happened.
…
As [Foothill Gold Line CEO Habib F. Balian] has to keep his eyes on the prize and stay cool about all this, he calmly informed the press in his monthly missive about updating his Board of Directors on the “near-term plan to complete the Pomona to Montclair project segment following the recent announcement that CalSTA did not fund the project.”
In lieu of the appropriate funding, and while searching out more big bucks from Metro, Balian’s team is “identifying several early work packages that can be initiated to advance the project and reduce the ultimate bid price from future design-build contractors.”
The authority was seeking a lot — $798 million — for the 3.2-mile extension. But the competitive grant program that doled out cash to others and not to the SGV and the Inland Empire came out of that old $98 billion state surplus. And the project wasn’t a flash in the pan — it’s been planned for almost a quarter century. Plus, like only Union Station that I can think of, the Pomona, Claremont and Montclair stations would connect to MetroLink heavy-rail lines. Connectivity is what mass transit is all about.
To read the full editorial (may require subscription), click here.
Of course, L.A. wins (what else is new?). I don’t have to read the whole thing to know he is absolutely right. Too many cars and very limited public transportation to speak of in the I.E. (and SoCal). I don’t drive (never have). Many people don’t drive because who the hell can afford it. Pisses me off, as I need metro access {with my bike} if I want to go to L.A. from Upland/S.B. county. Metrolink doesn’t cut it.