Story Published:
Jan 7, 2010 at 12:29 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Jan 7, 2010 at 12:29 PM PDT
ROSEMEAD — With the latest stretch of Gold Line tracks open for just a few weeks, officials to the east see a potential gold mine in extending it further.
The cities of El Monte, Montebello, Monterey Park, Rosemead and South El Monte are collaborating on a plan to extend the rail line east from East Los Angeles, parallel to the Pomona (60) Freeway. A competing plan would have the trains veer to the southeast, into Whittier.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune has reported that a coalition of cities wants the trains to serve dense housing developments, two community colleges and the heavily used Whittier Narrows Recreation Area.
“There are a number of housing developments along the route, and if we can get this transportation, we can really reduce the number of cars on the road,” said Joseph Gonzales, chairman of the SR-60 Coalition of Cities, and a South El Monte City Council member.
But officials in Whittier have argued for a more-southerly alignment, because their city does not have a major east-west transportation facility, like the cities along the 60 Freeway.
Complicating the matter is the planned California High Speed Rail route, which is eyeing both of the proposed Gold Line alignments for bullet-train tracks connecting Los Angeles to Ontario and San Diego. The new high speed tracks will likely leave Los Angeles along either the San Bernardino (10) or Pomona freeways, and could require construction of a new rail corridor either atop the freeways or through houses and buildings next to them.
The first choice for the high-speed rail planners was along the existing Union Pacific rail tracks through Commerce and Pico Rivera, near where the Whittier Gold Line extension might go. But Union Pacific has made it plain it will not allow such uses, and state laws favor the railroad.
The five-city coalition favoring the Gold Line along the 60 Freeway hopes to convince the MTA that a U-shaped light rail system across both the southern and northern sections of the San Gabriel Valley, and anchored at Los Angeles Union Station, makes the most sense.
Cities in the northern part of the San Gabriel Valley have already won an extension of the Gold Line from Pasadena east through Montclair, eventually connecting to Ontario International Airport.
A proposed light rail connector in downtown Los Angeles would connect both arms of the Gold Line to the Blue Line to Long Beach, and the Expo Line to Culver City and Santa Monica.
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