The Foothill Gold Line finalized its plan to extend from Glendora to Montclair at the contract signing press conference on October 4 at Pomona City Hall.
According to a press release by Chief Communications Officer of the Foothill Gold Line, Lisa Levy Buch, the expansion will cost $2.1 billion.
The plan is a part of Measure M, to reform public transportation through the San Gabriel Valley and create more jobs, help traffic congestion and build community.
Mayor of Pomona Tim Sandoval said the plan will help the economy flourish.
“This project has been proven to be a true economic catalyst,” Sandoval said in his speech at the press conference.
Though the Gold Line is seen as a symbol of success, it took awhile for the plan to be set due to funding.
Back in 2008, a ballot proposal of Measure R was placed and stated it was a project that planned to raise sales tax to fund public transportation in Los Angeles. Then in November 2016, the plan for Measure M exceeded to extend the Gold Line from Glendora to Montclair. The project is more than 12 years in the making.
The plan for the Gold Line extension took years to process and the design was facilitated by Metro engineers. Since the point of the Gold Line is to help public transportation, getting the Gold Line to extend through the numerous Metro stations through the San Gabriel and Inland Empire was crucial to the foreseers of the project.
“The design and construction has to conform to the Metro criteria,” Gold Line Deputy Director of Engineering John Sarah said. “Each station has an artist so it’s all integrated with the system to make sure its efficient and serves the purpose of getting people from one place to another, but also blended with the community.”
Michaell Hillman, Ceramics Professor at Citrus College contributed to the plan of the Goldline extension. Having done numerous art projects around the Glendora area, Hillman was chosen 12 years ago to be the artist of the Glendora station. He said he was in charge of all the aesthetic decisions of the Glendora station.
Duana E. Smith, resident of Pomona, is in support of the Gold Line extension.
“I’m here in support of the Gold Line,” Smith said. “I’m here in support of the process by which it is being funded.”
Smith has been a Pomona resident since the early 1970’s. He said he has seen Pomona change for the better in the past few years in terms of the new Pomona Homeless Outreach and now the Gold Line extension.
“I’m in favor of putting the community back together for just about anything,” Smith said.
The press release by Buch stated the expansion from Glendora to Pomona is projected to be completed by 2025 and the expansion to Montclair will be completed by 2028, if additional funding of $381.3 million is secured by Oct. 2021.
