San Bernardino County transit officials have delayed a decision on whether to fund a proposed extension of the A Line light-rail line to Montclair.
The project would bring the county its first light-rail line, carrying riders to and from Los Angeles County. But at a meeting Thursday morning, the transit committee of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority voted unanimously to delay a planned vote to commit funding that would extend the A Line from Pomona to Montclair.
The SBCTA committee expects to take up the funding issue in September.
Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority is requesting $15.2 million for project design, but SBCTA officials expressed concern over other costs associated with the A Line work.
“My city has been heavily impacted by this,” SBCTA chairperson and Montclair Mayor John Dutrey said Thursday. “And I kind of feel like we’re being screwed.”
In addition to the $15.2 million needed for design, Dutrey said, the estimated cost for the rest of the project is $145 million to $244 million. The longer the work is delayed, the more it will cost in the end, he said.
Dutrey asked the committee to either take no action Thursday to give members more time to understand the full costs of the project or, alternatively, allocate the $15.2 million sought by the construction authority to get the design process started.
The rest of the board agreed to table the discussion while asking staff to explore funding options.
LA Metro awarded $798 million to build the A Line — formerly the Gold Line — extension from Pomona to Claremont and Montclair in November 2024.
The state Legislature gave the Foothill Extension Construction Authority the power to build the project into San Bernardino County in 2011. But the construction authority ran out of money in 2019, and the state rejected project gap funding in 2021, 2022 and 2023 despite large surpluses in the state budget.
Carrie Schindler, SBCTA’s director of transit and rail programs, said Thursday she was frustrated the A Line extension to Montclair has not been completed. But she said she was “extremely concerned” the agency would be looking at higher costs a year from now.
“We always have higher costs when we delay,” she said.