Going for the Gold Line
Ontario airport is in line for a rail link with downtown Los Angeles but lacks $800 million
 |
Download story podcast | |
10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, March 23, 2008
The construction authority that built the Gold Line light-rail system between Los Angeles and Pasadena now wants to run that rail line to Montclair and LA/Ontario International Airport.
First it needs at least $800 million, said Jerry Sims, administrative manager of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority in Monrovia.
Ontario International would be the first major airport in Southern California to be served by rail if the extension ever happens, though the most optimistic estimates say extending the Gold Line that far won't happen for at least 20 years.
A $152 billion plan for transportation projects submitted to the 13-member Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board March 12 failed to include money for that project, spokesman Rick Jager said.
The Gold Line to Ontario extension is among $60 billion worth of unfunded projects designated in that report.
"That means we'd like do them but there isn't any money for them," Jager said.
Board members are scheduled to vote on the plan in June, after a series of public hearings. So far, funds to extend the Gold Line - a light-rail system smaller than the Metrolink that runs on electricity rather than diesel fuel - aren't even available to bring the line to Azusa.
That project is scheduled to be finished by 2011.
Some published reports have the Gold Line, which starts at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and runs to Madre Street along Interstate 210, reaching Montclair by 2014, but funding has yet to be set aside for that, Sims said.
Formed during the mid-1990s, the construction authority is the largest authority of its kind chartered and funded by California.
It was assembled after the transportation authority delayed building the Blue Line to Pasadena "three or four times" before it finally reached the city in 2003.
"The MTA has never thought the San Gabriel Valley was as important as downtown Los Angeles or the San Fernando Valley," Sims said. "The money wasn't there, and people got tired of the delays."
Supporters of extending the Gold Line to Ontario International Airport have an ally in Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Both Ontario International and Los Angeles International airports are owned by Los Angeles, and Villaraigosa is under pressure to relieve congestion at Los Angeles International.
Villaraigosa, who faces opposition to expanding Los Angeles International Airport, has said building light-rail to service to Ontario International Airport would be a good way to add to the airport's annual 7 million passengers.
While the construction authority's first task is to bring the Gold Line to the Montclair Transit Center, officials believe that task will be easier to sell if they can stress extending the light-rail line west to the airport.
"We think it will be added incentive to get it to Montclair if it's agreed that it will go to the airport eventually," Sims said. "The question is, does it make sense to do it, and then how do we make it happen? We know it's a long way off, but we have to start now if we're going to do it in the next 10 to 20 years. And it helps that the mayor is on our side."
In December, the construction authority began a study examining the feasibility of extending the Gold Line to the airport.
The report, which is expected to he completed this fall, will analyze the best rail routes through Montclair and Ontario. Potential routes were discussed during public meetings in Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga earlier this month.
"It's at least 20 years away, unless something really big happens in the way of funding," said Matt Bair, director of transportation and rail programs for San Bernardino Associated Governments.
Money to get the Gold Line from Azusa to Montclair and Ontario will come from local, state and federal sources. If the authority can secure 20% of the funds through state and local sources, it would be eligible to get the remaining 80% from the U.S. Transportation Administration, which is part of the Transportation Department.
