San Bernardino Line

San Bernardino Line
The Santa Fe Depot in San Bernardino
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Metrolink
Status	Operating
Locale	Greater Los Angeles Area and Inland Empire
Termini	Los Angeles Union Station San Bernardino Santa Fe Depot
Stations	14
Daily ridership	12,633 (2012)
Operation
Operator(s)	Metrolink
Character	Elevated and surface-level
Technical
Line length	56.5 miles (90.9 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Operating speed	35 mph (56 km/h)[1]
Route map Legend      Antelope Valley,      Ventura County Lines Union Station      91,      Orange County,      Riverside Lines Cal State L.A. El Monte Baldwin Park Covina Fairplex (fair days only) Pomona (North) Claremont Montclair Upland Rancho Cucamonga Auto Club Speedway (race days only) Fontana Rialto      91,      Inland Empire–Orange County Lines San Bernardino

The San Bernardino Line is a Metrolink line running between Downtown Los Angeles east through the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire to San Bernardino. It is one of the three initial lines (along with the Santa Clarita and Ventura Lines) on the original Metrolink system. When the line opened in 1992 service extended only as far as Pomona, but in 1993 the line was extended to San Bernardino. Saturday service was added in 1997 and Sunday service in 1998.

As of August 2016, 20 trains run Los Angeles to San Bernardino on weekdays.^[2] It is the first of the seven Metrolink lines to run on both Saturday and Sunday, with 10 trains to San Bernardino on Saturdays and 7 on Sundays. Two Saturday and two Sunday trains would continue to the downtown Riverside station until July 5, 2014, when weekend service on the 91 Line began.

Stations

The San Bernardino Line serves the following stations:

1. Union Station, Downtown Los Angeles
2. Cal State L.A. station, University Hills, Eastside Los Angeles
3. El Monte station, El Monte
4. Baldwin Park station, Baldwin Park
5. Covina station, Covina
6. Pomona North station, Pomona
7. Claremont station, Claremont
8. Montclair station, Montclair
9. Upland station, Upland
10. Rancho Cucamonga station, Rancho Cucamonga
11. Fontana station, Fontana
12. Rialto station, Rialto
13. Santa Fe Depot, San Bernardino

There are also platforms at the Fairplex in Pomona and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, but these are used only for special events.^[3][4]

Route

After leaving Union Station and crossing the Los Angeles River, the line follows the San Bernardino Freeway and El Monte Busway until just after the Cal State L.A. station; it then runs in the median of the San Bernardino Freeway to the El Monte Station along the former route of the Pacific Electric Railway's San Bernardino Line. Starting at El Monte, the line parallels the Union Pacific's Sunset Route (ex-Southern Pacific) for a few miles before turning northeast at Bassett 34°03′03″N 117°59′50″W / 34.0507°N 117.9971°W onto a Southern Pacific branch. At 34°05′38″N 117°43′49″W / 34.0939°N 117.7303°W (a former Southern Pacific/Pacific Electric-Santa Fe crossing), it switches to the Santa Fe; from Claremont to just west of San Bernardino it follows what was the Santa Fe's Pasadena Subdivision (and before that the Second District of the LA Division, the Santa Fe passenger main line). The San Bernardino Line is mostly single track with 6 passing sidings and short sections of double track near Covina, between Pomona and Montclair, and west of Fontana.

San Bernardino extension

San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) conducted an environmental impact report (EIR) to extend rail service southeast from the current eastern terminus in San Bernardino to Redlands.^[5] The extension was planned to follow the 9-mile (14 km) Redlands Subdivision and comprise two phases:^[6]

• The Downtown San Bernardino Passenger Rail Project is planned to extend Metrolink's San Bernardino Line southeast one mile via double trackage to a new terminus at the San Bernardino Transit Center.^[7] The project's groundbreaking was in February 2014;^[8] at that time, the extension was expected to be completed by mid-2016.^[9] As of September 2015, the completion date had been extended to 2017.^[10] As of February 2016, the extension was under construction.^[11]
• The Redlands Passenger Rail Project was a planned Metrolink extension to Redlands. As of 2011, service was to begin in the mid to late 2010s,^[12] with stations at Waterman Avenue next to the Inland Regional Center, the ESRI campus, Downtown Redlands, and the University of Redlands.^[13] As of December 2015, SANBAG decided that this second phase of the project, from the San Bernardino Transit Center to Redlands, would no longer be a Metrolink extension, but rather an independent system. SANBAG now plans to use diesel multiple units and have Omnitrans operate the system. However, San Bernardino Line express limited-stop trains would run on part of the extension, to the Downtown Redlands station. Construction is planned to begin in 2017 with the extension opening in 2020.^[14][15]

References

1. "Metrolink Fact Sheet for June 2012" (PDF). Metrolink. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
2. "Metrolink Timetable" (PDF). June 6, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
3. "Metrolink to make special stop at the L.A. County Fair" (Press release). Metrolink. August 26, 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
4. "Special Metrolink service to Auto Club 400 available" (Press release). Metrolink. March 12, 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
5. "Redlands Passenger Rail Project". SANBAG. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
6. "Redlands First Mile and Passenger Rail Project" (PDF). Archived October 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
7. "Downtown San Bernardino Passenger Rail Project". SANBAG. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
8. Macduff, Cassie (February 26, 2014). "SAN BERNARDINO: Agencies pool money for transit center, Metrolink extension". The Press Enterprise.
9. "Destination: San Bernardino" (PDF). SANBAG. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
10. Hagen, Ryan (2015-09-08). "San Bernardino Transit Center opening makes commuting easier". The San Bernardino Sun. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
11. "3rd Street Closure at Railroad Tracks" (PDF). SANBAG. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
12. MacDuff, Cassie (16 May 2011). "Imperfect Rail Solution". The Press-Enterprise. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
13. Emerson, Sandra (September 15, 2015). "SanBAG gives updates on cost, timeline of Redlands rail project". Redlands Daily Facts. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
14. Emerson, Sandra (2015-11-07). "SanBAG begins design of Redlands Passenger Rail Project". Redlands Daily Facts. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
15. "Redlands Passenger Rail Project Fact Sheet" (PDF). SANBAG. December 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-15.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

• San Bernardino Line schedule
• San Bernardino extension page on the San Bernardino Associated Governments website