Rail service came to Pasadena with the coming of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad on September 17, 1885. The Santa Fe Railroad acquired the line a few years later, which became its Second District of the Los Angeles Division. Santa Fe's classic passenger trains ran across the line such as the Super Chief, El Capitan, Scout, Chief and California Limited. Amtrak took over passenger service in the United States on May 1, 1971, leaving only the Super Chief on this route. Service on the Super Chief under Amtrak did not live up to the Santa Fe's high standards, so they disallowed the use of the Chief name, thereby Amtrak renamed it the Southwest Limited. When service improved with the new Superliners, Santa Fe let Amtrak use the Chief name again and it became the Southwest Chief.
On May 21, 1976, the Las Vegas Limited was operated over this route for a summer season. The Desert Wind started its Los Angeles-to-Ogden, Utah service on October 28, 1979, which lasted until April 27, 1986, when it was rerouted via Fullerton to better serve Orange County. In December 1993, the eastbound Southwest Chief started running via Fullerton, while the westbounds still went via Pasadena. On January 14, 1994, the last Southwest Chief ran through Pasadena, then all service was rerouted through Fullerton as well. Freight service ended just a few days before the bridge over the Los Angeles River was damaged by the Northridge Earthquake on January 17, 1994 and was later removed.
The MTA bought the line that would become the future Pasadena Blue Line. A new concrete bridge was built over the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco bridge was removed to rid it of asbestos. The MTA was later banned of all future rail construction projects and the route sat waiting for a change in the wind.
The Pasadena Gold Line was constructed by the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Construction Authority, which was created by State Legislation (SB1847) effective January 1, 1999. Once completed, MTA will operate the light rail system. The route length is 13.7 miles, scheduled to open on July 26, 2003 with 13 stations. The line was built with a single contractor Kiewit-Washington, on budget at $740 million and on time, a new way of building rail line in California.
Testing of the system was turned over to the MTA in mid-April, which conducted extensive pre-revenue testing up to the public opening on July 26. Early next year they hope to break ground extending the Gold Line from Union Station to East Los Angeles.
In the first year of operation, the Metro Gold Line is expected to carry between 26,000 and 32,000 average weekday boarding passengers. Cost of the system including rail cars and various improvements to the line is estimated at $859 million. The Gold Line is a vital link in the County's multi-modal transportation system efficiently serving the needs of commuters in Los Angeles, Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, Highland Park, South Pasadena and Pasadena. It will operate every ten minutes on weekdays during peak morning and afternoon rush hour, then operate every twelve minutes during the midday, and every twenty minutes during the late night hours. On the weekends, early morning and late night trains will operate every twenty minutes, midday service until approximately 7:00 P.M. and will operate every twelve minutes. The hours of operation will be from 3:35 A.M. to 2 A.M. seven days a week.
Commuters using the Metro Gold Line can expect to get from East Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles and vice versa in approximately thirty-six minutes without the traffic hassles of the Pasadena and 210 Freeways. The Metro Gold Line will use 26 state-of-the-art rail cars, each costing $3.75 million. Each train car seats 76 passengers. During rush hours, the scheduled capacity for each car is a total of 144 passengers including standees. When service starts, MTA expects to utilize 39 full-time train operators and two part-time operators and plans to operate two car trains on the Metro Gold Line. Fares will be the same as all MTA-operated Metro Bus and Metro Rail trains, costing just $1.35 one-way (cash) or 90 cents using a pre-purchased discount token. Monthly passes good for unlimited travel are $42.
At Union Station, there is a quick transfer to Amtrak, Metrolink or to the Metro Red Line subway, where a passenger could reach Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Universal City or North Hollywood. At 7th and Flower, a connection to the Metro Blue Line will take you to the Staples Center, Watts Towers or downtown Long Beach for a visit to the Queen Mary, Aquarium of the Pacific or Rosa Parks transfer to the Metro Green Line to LAX, Norwalk or Redondo Beach.
Getting To My First RideHaving a plan in order to beat the Opening Day free riders found me at the Santa Ana station before dawn waiting for an Amtrak Thruway Bus to Los Angeles for an early morning connection to the Pasadena Gold Line. The 5:50 AM bus to Bakersfield arrived nine minutes late, which was odd since it originates here, but departed at 6:02 AM. As we turned off California Highway 91 at Lemon Street, I saw an eastbound BNSF stack train speeding east. We picked up eight passengers at Fullerton before continuing to Los Angeles Union Station, arriving at 6:49 AM. However, the driver did not have a place to park, but he let me out to catch my train and I made a mad dash into the station, through the tunnel then up the stairs to the platform, finding a "Discover the Gold Line" banner" displayed before I caught the Gold Line 6:51 AM train to Sierra Madre.
We departed on time and climbed up onto the viaduct over the LAUPT garden tracks then out over the streets, curving to the Chinatown station with the unique Chinese design. We returned to the ground as we ran through the former Southern Pacific Bull Ring yard site before passing the junction to the shops then climbed over the Los Angeles River with a great view of the Gold Line shops before descending to the former Santa Fe right-of-way. then crossed over Interstate 5 before arriving at the Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park station. We ran between the light industries prior to crossing the Pasadena Freeway for the first time.
The entire line is double tracked as we passed a train on its way towards Union Station then arrived at Heritage Square station, where people were busy setting up booths and the like for the Opening Day, which was occurrin at all the stations. We descended into a tunnel under the busy Figueroa Street before returning to the surface and travelling through residential neighbourhoods and along Marmion Way to the Southwest Museum. The stone work along the line was really impressive and there was a fence between the tracks, but the MTA employees touring the line for the first time were concerned that the outside of the tracks were not fenced and wondered if the center fence would keep people from being hit by Gold Line trains?
We stopped at the Highland Park station before crossing high above Arroyo Seco over the Pasadena Freeway once more to enter South Pasadena then made what seemed to be an emergency stop and our train stopped quick and smoothly. An MTA maintainer had to board to reset a control in the center cabinet in our car so there was a ten-minute delay. The cars themselves run smooth and quiet and we arrived at Mission station where I saw "No Bells, No Horns" banners. We next crossed the Pasadena Freeway one last time before passing under the famous arch bridge seen in so many Santa Fe pictures before entering Pasadena and reaching Fillmore station. That was followed a few blocks later by Del Mar station and we descended into a tunnel under Colorado Boulevard and downtown to reach Memorial Park station in an open concrete canyon. We stayed in the trench then turned east into our last tunnel, reaching the middle of Interstate 210 where we travelled east to Lake, Allen and our final station at Sierra Madre Villa. This brought us to the present eastern end of the Pasadena Gold Line and in the future, the line should reach Claremont.
That brings us to the end of our Opening Day tour of the Pasadena Gold Line. Now all I had to do was take a relaxing Gold Line train back to Union Station but the car had more problems on its return trip at the Southwest Museum and the same maintainer boarded again to help solve the problem. We arrived at Union Station at 8:15 AM and I walked over to and boarded the waiting Pacific Surfliner 566. I saw and chatted to Ken Ruben, wwho had been up all night to ride the first Gold Line train at 3:56 AM and was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
We departed on time and when we passed the Amtrak shed, I saw the Coast Starlight, whose rear locomotive was Amtrak Cascades 469 in that attractive green and brown paint scheme. As the Del Mar Race season had just started, many people boarded at Fullerton on their way to the races, then we arrived at Santa Ana on time, ending this opening day journey on the Pasadena Gold Line.
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