2025 Gold Line Updates
January 2025
Potential Funding Shortfall to Extend the Gold Line to Montclair
After more than five years of construction, the 9.1-mile extension of the Gold Line (renamed A-Line) light rail system from Azusa to Pomona (Phase 2B) reached a major milestone when, in early January 2025, the Foothill Gold Line Extension Construction Authority (Authority), announced the project achieved substantial completion on time and within budget. Reaching substantial completion means that the Phase 2B project has effectively been turned over to the Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority (L.A. Metro) for final testing, training and preparation for passenger service.
The Phase 2B design-build contract was assigned in October 2019, and major construction began in July 2020. According to the Authority, the construction-design team logged more than 2.6 million work hours over the five-year construction period, and completed the project with an excellent safety record.
Los Angeles County’s Measure M half-cent sales tax provided the majority of funding for the Phase 2B project. Other funding sources included nearly $100 million of residual funds from Los Angeles County’s Measure R half-cent sales tax that were not used to complete the Pasadena to Azusa segment of the Gold Line. Additionally, the project was awarded a nearly $300 million grant through the California State Transportation Agency’s (CalSTA’s) Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program in 2018, and $126 million from the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG) to complete the La Verne to Pomona segment of Phase 2B.
Funding from the SGVCOG allowed the Authority to extend the light-rail system from La Verne to Pomona, while still preserving the option to extend the system to Claremont and Montclair. The SBVCOG used discretionary funds L.A. Metro provided from Measure M—funds that were to be designated for local street and highway projects in SBVCOG communities. Members of the SBVCOG recognized that the Gold Line extension has regional benefits particularly in its promised ability to move cars off clogged freeways as drivers transition to rail transit. Linking the Gold Line with Metrolink’s San Bernardino Line would also provide transit riders with more choices. The Gold Line is also an economical choice, offering riders the ability to take riders to their destinations for $1.75 per ride.
Phase 2B originally included stations for Claremont and Montclair. However, due to increases in cement and steel, the latter due to tariffs imposed by the first Trump Administration, bids on the Phase 2B extension to Montclair came in $570 million higher than expected, causing the Authority to remove Claremont and Montclair from the design-build project. The Authority designated the Claremont to Montclair segment as Phase 2B2 and, over the last several years, sought to secure funding for the Phase 2B2 Project. That funding was secured in 2024 when L.A. Metro, using state funding, awarded $798 million to extend the Gold Line to Claremont. The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) has secured $80 million to complete construction to Montclair. However, as the Construction Authority awaits a bid on the Phase 2B2 Project, new concern is being raised on the effects of a new round of tariffs imposed by the current Trump Administration on imported steel. Earlier in February 2025, President Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all steel imports. Costs associated with the tariffs are expected to be calculated into the bid on the Phase 2B2 Project.
L.A. Metro’s final evaluation of the Phase 2B Project is expected to last through August 2025. After evaluation, the Gold Line could open for passenger service early this summer. The Gold Line currently operates between Azusa and Long Beach on 48.5 miles of track, making it the longest light rail system worldwide. Once the Phase 2B section to Pomona is operational, it will be 57.6 miles long.
The $1.7 billion Phase 2B project includes four new completed stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona. The project also built 19 bridges—four over city streets and the rest clearing waterways; 21 at-grade crossings; 10 miles of sound walls; and four new parking lots.
The construction crews from Kiewit-Parsons, a joint venture (KPJV), overseen by the Authority, were confronted by a number of obstacles during the construction period, including the COVID-19 pandemic and unusual weather patterns—the latter which included two record summers of extreme heat and two record winters that produced atmospheric rivers that brought record breaking rain to the area.
The four-station, Phase 2B extension is expected to increase Gold Line ridership by over 11,000 daily weekday boardings. L.A. Metro is, however, re-examining ridership numbers and does not have an updated estimate. As of November 2024, the Gold Line carried an estimated 70,425 average weekday boardings, up from around 61,000 average weekday boardings in November 2023 following the end of the pandemic.
The 3.2-mile leg from Pomona to Claremont and Montclair (Phase 2B2) is now being readied for construction. Once completed in 2030, the Gold Line will grow to more than 61 miles and will become the first L.A. Metro rail line to cross into San Bernardino County—a cross-county connection often promoted as providing a rail transit alternative for Inland Empire commuters who usually drive the crowded I-210, I-10 and SR-60 freeways. Until Phase 2B2 is completed, Inland Empire residents can take advantage of the Pomona station’s close proximity to western San Bernardino County cities including Montclair, Ontario, Upland, Chino, Chino Hills and other cities. The below schematic shows the Gold Line Phase 2B and Phase 2B2 Project cities and their respective station stops.
In addition to the Gold Line, rail transit riders will continue to have access to Metrolink’ commuter rail network, including the San Bernardino Line, which goes from San Bernardino to Los Angeles, with stops at Union Station in Los Angeles, Cal-State Los Angeles, El Monte, Baldwin Park, Covina, Pomona, Claremont, Montclair, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Rialto, San Bernardino and Redlands.
L.A. Metro studies project that in addition to an increase in ridership for the Gold Line light rail system, including Claremont and Montclair adding as many as 8,300 daily riders, Metrolink’s San Bernardino Line is also projected to gain more than 2,000 daily passengers. Together, the two systems will offer rail transit riders options that can take them to the San Gabriel Valley, Foothill Cities, Pasadena, Los Angeles, and Long Beach.
Extension of the Gold Line to Montclair is also expected to advance employment opportunities, particularly for the Inland Empire’s logistical centers which, in turn, will increase demand for bus services provided by Omnitrans and Foothill Transit—services that will extend rail transit rider “first-and-last mile” access in the region.
March 2025
Gold Line to Montclair Faces New Hurdle
The four-station Glendora to Pomona project segment of the Foothill Gold Line light rail extension has now been fully transitioned to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (L.A. Metro), with passenger/fare service expected to begin in the summer of 2025. Once operational, the Gold Line with have trains arriving and departing the Pomona station approximately every five minutes during peak hours and twelve minutes during off peak hours.
The final segment of the Foothill Gold Line extension is the 3.2-mile project between Pomona and Montclair – Montclair is the designated eastern terminus of the Gold Line. However, there continues to be interest in ultimately extending light rail service to Ontario International Airport (ONT).
On February 26, 2025, the Construction Authority received a bid response from Kiewit, the contractor awarded the bid for the three previous Gold Line extension phases. That bid response underwent review by six committees of transportation and industry experts, attorneys, financial professionals and partner agencies.
Each committee reviewed different elements of the proposal, submitting overall ratings and recommendations. The timeline for construction of the Pomona to Montclair segment was expected to occur between summer 2025 and 2030. However, L.A. Metro, the Construction Authority and their city partners have been well-aware that this is a difficult time to be receiving a bid on a large-scale, long-term construction project. The economic uncertainty, both nationally and locally, impacting the contracting community has raised concerns related to long-term construction-related risks.
Two major factors leading to economic uncertainty are the 25 percent tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on all steel and aluminum imports, globally, and current immigration policies that are restricting foreign labor. Tariffs, when coupled with inflationary factors, have produced significant hardships for contractors trying to bid on projects. Contractors also continue to cite difficulty in finding qualified workers as one of their greatest challenges which, in turn, is leading to increases in labor costs. Construction is more dependent than most industries on imported materials and foreign-born workers – and those factors are clearly seen in the bid package submitted for the Pomona to Montclair Gold Line construction segment. Imposition of tariffs and limits on immigration/expanded deportation measures are driving up construction-related costs, snarling supply chains, and slowing projects – all factors that may potentially lead to project cancellations.
On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority Board of Directors, after reviewing the bid package from Kiewit, rejected the Kiewit proposal because it ran several hundred million dollars over budget due to the factors cited above. In 2018, the bids on the Glendora to Montclair extension also ran high, due largely to tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum during the first Trump Administration. The 2018 high-cost estimate caused the Construction Authority to remove Pomona, Claremont and Montclair from the procurement contract, and build the extension from Glendora to La Verne. Pomona was added at a later date after the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments contributed approximately $120 million in local street program funds from Measure M in Los Angeles County to complete the project to Pomona. The Construction Authority tried in 2021, 2022 and 2023 to get funding to build the project to Claremont and Montclair, but came up short. However, funding finally developed when, in October 2024, LA Metro awarded $798 million for building the Gold Line extension from Pomona to Claremont and Montclair.
L.A. Metro project that, when built, the Claremont and Montclair stations would generate an estimated 8,200 daily boardings, or about half of the Gold Line’s total adjusted ridership. The Metrolink San Bernardino Line is also expected to pick up approximately 2,000 additional daily riders generated from growth in interest in transit ridership.
Much of the growth in ridership would come from Inland Empire commuters who drive east and west on the 210, 10 and 60 freeways for jobs in Los Angeles County.
L.A. Metro reports suggest that extending the light rail line into Montclair would remove approximately 15,000 car trips off the roads each day, thereby reducing 26.7 million vehicle miles travelled annually and eliminating 1.75 metric tons of carbon emissions that add to global climate change.
The Construction Authority will now develop new bid packages that will reconsider the current design-build process.