Montclair City Councilmember Bill Ruh ticked off the transportation connections between San Bernardino County and Los Angeles County.
When Caltrans extended the 210 Freeway through Rialto into San Bernardino County in 2007, they crossed jurisdictions. Likewise, Foothill Transit — an L.A. County-based bus system — has run buses that cross from L.A. County into San Bernardino County every day for decades. Riverside Transit Authority also runs buses into San Bernardino County.
“Look, Greyhound comes into Montclair and they cross county, city and state lines. Metrolink crosses county lines. Our freeways do, too. It is a common thing,” Ruh said on Monday, Sept. 8, saying he didn’t see the cross-jurisdiction issue of the A Line light-rail train coming from Los Angeles as a deal breaker.
However, despite 21 years of planning, the San Bernardino County Transportation Agency (SBCTA) did. Its board said no to a first-ever electric-powered, light-rail line crossing into Montclair from Los Angeles County. The board voted 15-11 on Sept. 3 to spend the money that was reserved for the 3.2-mile Pomona to Montclair extension on other projects.
Now, reaching Montclair is not going to happen. And there are lots of reasons why not.
The SBCTA board said they felt they were getting pushed around by the transit agencies across the county line and didn’t want to grant control to two Los Angeles County agencies for a train that would cross into their territory.
The 29-member board expressed skepticism about an arrangement that gave Los Angeles County government entities all the power, so they stopped negotiating and refused to turn over their right-of-way for building about a half mile of track. One member, Grand Terrace Mayor Bill Hussey, put it this way: “L.A. is just using us,” he told fellow board members.
The done deal, wasn’t
The lengthy A Line, commonly called the Gold Line, was built from central Los Angeles to Pasadena, then to Azusa, and starting Sept. 19 the line will reach the eastern L.A. County foothill communities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona. A few years ago, the Gold Line became the A Line, connecting into downtown L.A., South L.A. and Long Beach.
Already the longest light-rail line in the world, another extension was funded to the tune of $800 million by the California State Transportation Agency to go 3.2 miles from Pomona and add two more stations, Claremont and Montclair. The historic landing into the Montclair Transit Center was going to be the first time an LA Metro rail line reached into another county.
The Metro Foothill Extension Gold Line Construction Authority has been building this line for 25 years. Since 2004, it was planned to reach Montclair and included in the county’s transportation half-cent sales tax initiative, Measure I. In 2011, then-Assemblymember Norma Torres got a bill passed and signed that gave the Construction Authority the power to build the line into San Bernardino County.
The Authority in 2018 saw prices rise in part by tariffs from the first Donald Trump administration and the extension ran out of money. So it could only be built to Pomona. Then in 2024, with pushes from Torres and now-retired Democratic Assemblymember Chris Holden and LA Metro, the Authority got its funding to build it to Montclair, but still needed SBCTA funds and approval.
What went nearly unsaid in the celebration was that the SBCTA still had to pay $15 million for the 0.67-mile portion’s design, and then kick in $120 million to $140 million for its portion of construction costs in 2027, thus making this nearly a $1 billion project.
After years of rallies, funding promises and dashed hopes, once the money finally flowed from Sacramento, most thought it would be a done deal. About 10,000 apartments have been built or are planned around the two stations, and the owners of its Montclair Plaza is remodeling. All in anticipation of the added 8,000 daily riders on the A Line, now no longer coming to Montclair.
Wanting more control
The SBCTA wanted more control over the actions and decisions of both the agency in charge of building the extension, the Construction Authority and the mega transit agency that would operate it, LA Metro, said Habib Balian, CEO of the Construction Authority in an interview Sept. 8.
“Our expression is ‘Let’s be honest. You don’t like not having control over this.’ They said this does not work for us,” said Balian.
In a statement released by the SBCTA after the vote, it said the agency was frustrated “over the absence of local control in decision-making” on the project. It also said it only had “limited input” into key aspects of the project.
Balian said he knew of the SBCTA’s frustrations, calling it the elephant in the room. But he said their demands went above what any other city in L.A. County had asked for in A Line extensions.
“How ridiculous this argument is: They wanted to have approval over construction of Metro’s light-rail system within their right-of-way. They wanted to have more rights than Metro has. It’s strange they wanted control over a project Metro would operate.”
These arguments, coupled with asks for deep structural changes in the way the Construction Authority and LA Metro builds and operates light-rail, resulted in non-agreement on this project.
SBCTA also worried about the cost of construction rising, and later paying LA Metro who will operate the entire line — a pro-rata amount for the small San Bernardino County portion. Since 2017, SBCTA has set aside about $80 million for construction and design. But the Construction Authority’s estimate for SBCTA’s portion ranges from $145 million to $244 million, according to an SBCTA staff report in August.
The SBCTA and the Construction Authority estimated the San Bernardino operating cost would be $5 million a year.
Balian said the SBCTA knew that what was good in 2017 would not suffice in 2027 through 2031, the timeline for the construction. The increases due to inflation, new tariffs, and competition for qualified construction workers will account for raising the total cost and that includes SBCTA’s portion.
Still, the SBCTA board was worried about increasing costs, saying that not having control was part of their costs concern. They hinted at wanting a voting member on the Construction Authority board and possibly even the LA Metro Board of Directors, which is reserved for only Los Angeles County voting members.
Currently, the Construction Authority board is made up of nine members, with five voting members all from the San Gabriel Valley. Montclair Mayor John Dutrey, appointed by the SBCTA, is a non-voting member.
Dutrey asked if he could have more time to complete negotiations for a Memorandum of Understanding on the project design and costs but the majority of the board said no, they wanted to move on from this project.
Other projects preferred
One idea from SBCTA is to beef up the Metrolink heavy-rail passengers service at the Montclair Transit Center. This line runs from San Bernardino to Rialto, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Montclair, Claremont, Pomona, Covina, Baldwin Park, El Monte, Cal State LA and L.A.’s Union Station.
Metrolink headways, or frequency of train service, can be an hour or more apart. The A Line light-rail runs about 8 minutes apart during on-peak times, and less often during off-peak. A ticket on Metrolink from San Bernardino to Union Station ranges between $10 and $14. LA Metro’s light-rail fare is $1.75, with discounts for students, senior citizens, disabled and low-income riders.
The SBCTA said it would work with Metrolink to bring more frequent train service to Montclair, and to possibly add 15-minute train frequencies.
One transit advocacy group liked the idea of scrapping the A Line extension to focus on other projects.
“It makes more sense to focus resources on improving Metrolink service in San Bernardino County for higher frequencies,” wrote Briana Egan, co-founder of the Inland Empire Urbanists group in an emailed response. “I am hopeful that based on the board members’ comments the county will work to invest in Metrolink improvements to achieve potentially 15-minute service on the very popular San Bernardino Line.”
The Transit Coalition, an L.A.-based watchdog group, took the opposite view, saying SBCTA did its residents a disservice by preventing LA Metro’s light-rail from connecting to San Bernardino County.
“It is a bad transit decision by the politicians in San Bernardino County. The political forces are not attuned to the needs of the community,” said Bart Reed, executive director of Transit Coalition.
Kevin Dedicatoria, 33, works at Ontario International Airport and drives to work from Culver City. He said not building the LA Metro A Line into Montclair will kill the dream of many western San Bernardino County commuters going across county lines by train to and from work. It also prevents a possible extension into Ontario International Airport, which many lawmakers have supported.
He said the SBCTA sees the A Line operating next to Metrolink in Montclair as a threat to the heavy-rail service and wants to protect Metrolink from losing passengers. Dedicatoria called that argument “nonsense” and said Metrolink would add riders, possibly going to the Pomona North Station where the A Line and Metrolink are available. Also, if built in Montclair, leisure riders would take the A Line to hockey, basketball and concert events in L.A. County, something Metrolink is less capable of serving, he said.
“I still want this to happen,” he added.
What’s next?
The Construction Authority is out with a request for proposals to extend the line to Claremont, using about $800 million from the state and LA Metro. The agency will award a design contract in November, with construction scheduled to start in August 2027, with completion to Claremont in 2031.
“In the intervening years, we would hope there is interest in getting the project to Montclair,” he said. “We are plowing away to get to Claremont,” he said, adding going to Montclair is still an option. “It is up to the stakeholders — they have to want the project.”