Little train that can't?

The Gold Line from downtown to Pasadena isn't exactly the MTA's most popular rail service. But the Pasadena Weekly sings it praises -- and wonders why it's been so hard to get the second phase of the line from Pasadena to Azusa off the ground:

Not only have the trains miraculously stayed largely graffiti- and stench-free throughout their four-year run, but the project managed to finish the first stage of construction on time and $10 million under budget. So building the next phase, from Sierra Madre Villa station to Azusa by the end of 2011, should be a breeze, right? Sadly, the answer is no.

Backers of the Pasadena-to-Azusa route now have a video.

Photo: LAT

Comments

[Marc Caldwell]

Regardless of what a better Highland Park Gold Line solution would be, I still can't figure out how the current route down a small residential street makes any sense at all. Perhaps it was due to it being the cheapest solution?

Look at how the Gold Line extension is dealing with 1st Street: widening the skinny thoroughfare from Alameda and going underground just before Mariachi Plaza. Is this the MTA learning from its mistakes?

[Marc Caldwell]

Regardless of what a better Highland Park Gold Line solution would be, I still can't figure out how the current route down a small residential street makes any sense at all. Perhaps it was due to it being the cheapest solution?

Look at how the Gold Line extension is dealing with 1st Street: widening the skinny thoroughfare from Alameda and going underground just before Mariachi Plaza. Is this the MTA learning from its mistakes?

[Tom A.]

Am I the only one who watches the news and notices that the 210 is always jammed solid headed west during the morning and east during the evening, not to mention the increasingly frequent occasions when both sides are at a standstill?! Never mind other east-west arteries like Foothill, Colorado and Huntington!
The Foothill Extension was needed 10 years ago, at least. Mark my words: The Downtown powerbrokers' insistence that it's unnecessary (at least in the near-term) will have a crippling effect on the entire region, not just the San Gabriel Valley.

[Jerard]

Manu, to physically elevate or build a trench for that section on the right of way would have caused more environmental impacts than it's worth because of the proximity to homes there.

In addition if it's built underground it would have to been built DEEP underground because right after Highland Park the line would have dipped into a little valley 40 feet below with the 110 Freeway there and a very steep hill right next to it.

[John M]

The cost of electrifying the *existing* rail line from Union Station to Ontario (or a spur into ONT) would be a reasonable alternative (read: much less than building the entire infrastructure for a light-rail line from SMV in Pasadena to ONT) if Metrolink could achieve a 60-mile-per-hour average along the route. El Monte would be a key component of the line to allow for interchange with Foothill, Metro buses, and other services.

[John M]

I have a video of me standing in the middle of the Allen Avenue station (median strip of the 210/Foothill Freeway) attempting to talk into the cellphone so that I could make myself understood. Conversations on the platform are almost impossible due to the freeway noise. Sierra Madre Villa and Lake Avenue experience approximately the same noise levels.

Why not lay some of that miracle rubberized asphalt on the riding surface for an additional 200 yards before and beyond the platform's end? And while doing that, why not some clear acrylic panels erected as sound walls between the lanes and the tracks?

If MTA employees were forced to work on those platforms for the duration of their shifts, CalOSHA would have them wearing ear protection. It's as bad - or worse than - the NYC subway when the freeway is moving at a moderate pace.

Of course, the train takes its leisurely time through a beautifully sound-walled South Pasadena and is almost undetectable unless you know it's there.

If the goal of the Gold Line boosters, including Mayor Villaraigosa, is to extend it to Ontario airport, it will take at least two hours to get there from Union Station. If experience is any judge, the FlyAway from Union Station to LAX is about 30 minutes regardless of the amount of traffic. An all-rail trip, even only changing trains once (if that were possible), would probably be 90 minutes.

Rail can't compete with this kind of flexibility.

[manu]

The reason that it is not getting support it is because the current line is very slow. The most important thing to train commuters is how fast can I get from point A to point B. And since the Gold Line has to go through Highland Park at a snail’s pace it just gets frustrating when it takes so long. What the MTA should have done through that section of the line was to elevate it or put it below grown. MTA, if you are making a new rail line make them fast, at least run them at 75mph.