Foothill Gold Line Update: Thousands Come Out to Celebrate Glendora to Pomona Opening

Habib F. Balian
Chief Executive Officer

Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority

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Extension of LA Metro A Line train to Pomona may attract Inland Empire commuters - San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Los Angeles Daily News

LA Metro opened an extended light-rail line from Azusa to Pomona with the inaugural train breaking the banner and being flooded with confetti. Local politicians and dignitaries rode on the train to a celebration ceremony on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025 in Pomona CA. The new extension opened to the public at 12 noon. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

By Steve Scauzillo

September 19, 2025

When the light-rail train smashed through the banner carrying its first passengers to the new Pomona station on Friday, Sept. 19, it raised new possibilities of cheaper, more efficient rail connections between Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire.

No, the expanded A Line train (aka the Gold Line), which opened for passenger service Friday, doesn’t go into San Bernardino County. It has been extended 9.1 miles from Azusa, with new stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona.

LA Metro celebrated the five-year project’s opening with a mariachi band and speakers from the State Legislature, elected representatives and transit officials who gave speeches before an audience of more than 300 people.

Many officials, electric-train supporters and future riders said because the LA Metro A Line now stops at the Pomona North station, where the heavy-rail passenger Metrolink train also stops, there is a side-by-side connection between the two services for the first time in either line’s history, not counting Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA).

“With the A Line extension to Pomona, the Pomona Valley will now have better connections to the rest of the LA Metro system, which includes Inland Empire residents who may choose to park and ride at the station or connect from Metrolink,” said Brianna Egan, of the group Inland Empire Urbanists.

The San Bernardino-to-LA Metrolink line goes through the heart of L.A. County. After Montclair, Claremont and Pomona, it goes to Covina, Baldwin Park, El Monte, Cal State LA, ending at L.A.’s Union Station. The LA Metro A Line, with the new stations, goes from Pomona to La Verne, San Dimas, Glendora, Azusa Pacific University/Citrus College and downtown Azusa. It continues along the foothills into Pasadena, then south to Highland Park, Chinatown, Union Station, Little Tokyo, Broadway, Grand Avenue and Exposition Park, steps from the Coliseum and BMO stadium, and then through South L.A. and into Long Beach.

The extension to Pomona adds transit access to 12 higher educational institutions, such as University of La Verne, nearby Cal Poly Pomona and others.

The line will provide access to ULV students and faculty, an alternative to driving the clogged 210 Freeway, said Risa Dickson, president of the university. Some may go to other colleges but take advantage of housing at the ULV.

“They can get on the A Line and live in our dorms at a much lower rate than living in the community,” Dickson said.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis mentioned the connection to the Los Angeles County Fairplex. The $1.5 billion extension is the ninth project to be completed in Metro’s Twenty-Eight by ’28 initiative, which is a plan to add more rail and bus transit for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The LA28 Olympic Committee announced it will hold cricket matches at the Fairplex, signaling the sport’s return to the Olympic Games in 2028.

“The project comes at the perfect time,” said LA Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins. “The world will be coming to our region for the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

The Glendora to Pomona segment is projected to add approximately 11,600 daily weekday boardings. Prior to Friday, the A Line carried 70,425 average weekday boardings, up from 61,000 in November 2023, according to Montclair City Manager Ed Starr.

Metrolink’s San Bernardino to L.A. line carried about 19,700 daily weekday boardings in the first quarter of 2025, said Starr.

Can both lines benefit from this new synergy? That will depend on how many riders decide on exiting the jammed 210 and 10 freeways and hopping on a train.

There are 133,000 workers living in San Bernardino County who go to jobs in L.A. County, while 61,000 commute the other way, from L.A. County into San Bernardino County, according to a study from Kleinhenz Economics commissioned by the Metro Foothill Extension Gold Line Construction Authority. Those in the latter category may be going to work at San Bernardino County schools as teachers and aides or to Ontario International Airport, and to hospitals in Montclair, Upland and Ontario, said Montclair City Councilmember Bill Ruh.

The combined commuter flow — snarling the 210, 10 and 60 freeways — between the two counties amounts to 194,000 workers, and that is “equivalent of a medium-sized city,” the Construction Authority’s report stated.

The once-sure thing of continuing the line to Montclair in San Bernardino County was rejected earlier this month by the county’s transit authority, which objected to rising costs with little control over decision-making. Plans are in the works but still tentative to build the line to the county’s eastern edge at Claremont. Until then, that makes Pomona’s station, at 241 Santa Fe St., an “end of line” station and the A Line’s closest station to Montclair.

If the train becomes popular to both Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County, can Pomona handle the surge? It shares a parking lot with Metrolink for a total of about 530 spaces.

“All the people from San Bernardino County can have access. They can come to the Pomona station and park their cars,” said Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval after riding the inaugural train into the station Friday.

Sandoval, who also sits on the LA Metro board, said the Pomona station and three other stations opens rail transit to East San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire families as both transportation and a cultural experience. “I’m thinking of the children who can get on the line with their parents and see people who are different from them and ask questions,” he said in an interview.

Some other factoids about this light-rail line:

• It is the longest light-rail line in the world. With this extension, it is now 57.6 miles long with 48 stations, running from Long Beach to Pomona.
• Trains run 24/7, every 8 minutes on weekdays during peak hours, 10 minutes on off-peak weekdays and daytime weekends, and 20 minutes late evenings and overnight, according to LA Metro. The fare is $1.75, with two hours of free transfers. K-12 students, seniors, people with disabilities and low-income riders can receive discounts.
• How long will it take to ride from the new stations to Union Station in DTLA? Glendora: 52 minutes; San Dimas: 58 minutes; La Verne/Fairplex: 62 minutes; Pomona North: 64 minutes.
• The A Line’s foothill corridor was once served by the Pacific Electric’s Monrovia-Glendora line. Rail disappeared from the region in 1951. The restoration of passenger service ended a 74-year gap. The route included the purchase of the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe right-of-way.
• The first section opened in 2003 and ran between DTLA and Pasadena. An extension to Azusa opened in 2016. The Azusa-to-Pomona extension began construction in 2020 by the Metro Foothill Extension Gold Line Construction Authority, after the state Legislature established the authority in 1998.