SGV Connect 150: Montclair’s A Line Lawsuit Against San Bernardino County Transportation Authority
For this special mini-edition of SGV Connect, Chris met up with Southern California News Group reporter Beau Yarbrough to dig in to the nuance surrounding the city of Montclair’s lawsuit against the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA).
The city had long been expecting to one day build the eastern terminus of the Metro A Line, formerly the Foothill Gold Line. The A Line is currently entirely in L.A. County, but has plans to cross the county line to reach the Montclair Transit Center. Last Fall, the SBCTA’s board effectively canceled the Montclair terminus by voting to cut its $37 million earmarked for the project.
Yarbrough shared how the city has shaped its economic development plans around the A Line, and went into detail on why the SBCTA board ultimately – but divisively – lost faith in the project. He expanded on what Montclair’s lawsuit is based on, and the SBCTA’s plans for what had been the light rail project funding.
Does this suit have a chance in court? Yarbrough weighed in on that, too. To read his article from the Daily Bulletin for free, click this link. The free link expires on 10/23/2026. A lightly-edited transcript can be found below the podcast embed.
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Chris Greenspon: We’re here with Southern California News Group’s Beau Yarbrough. You’ve read his work in the Daily Bulletin and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. We’re chatting with him today about the City of Montclair’s lawsuit against the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority. The city had long been expecting to one day build the eastern terminus of the Metro A Line, until last fall, when the SBCTA board voted to cut $37 million in funding from the project. That’s why we’re here at the Montclair Transit Center. Beau, thanks for joining us.
Beau Yarbrough: Of course.
Chris: So, as you look out around you at the transit center, and being familiar with the surroundings of the general area, what do you see here that reflects Montclair’s hopes for the A Line?
Beau: Just south of this transit center, if you hop that wall over there, you’re going to see a bunch of homes that are pretty nice and expensive. I stopped by there earlier. There was somebody washing their BMW in their garage.
Montclair is right across the LA County line in San Bernardino County, and since LA County has not figured out its housing situation and likely won’t for a very long time, you constantly have this flow of people moving into San Bernardino County, hoping to still work and be part of LA life.
Montclair, as opposed to Claremont, right across the border, is an extremely poor city, with high rates of poverty and much lower-than-average income for the state. They had been counting on this transit center for decades to be one of their economic drivers, bringing in more tax revenue and more development.
So they built this transit center with the idea that on all sides of it there would be housing, retail and things like that. Their concern now is that this will be less attractive to commuters going forward, which means a lot of those developers, some of whom are very mad at the city now, may go somewhere else and not build in the city or bring in the tax revenue they’re hoping for.
Chris: So why did SBCTA pull the plug, then? It sounds like there was a lot riding on this.
Beau: Well, SBCTA is made up of representatives from every single city in San Bernardino County, so they have a lot of competing interests. The money that goes here could also be used to build more freeway expansions, other rail lines or bus lines in the county, and things like that.
There are lots of competing interests. The board said at the time, back in September when they made the cut, that they didn’t feel like they had enough input into the project. They basically had to do whatever LA Metro told them was going to happen, and they didn’t like that.
You’ve got a bunch of mayors and other city council members, and that’s not the mode they move in. They were concerned that the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Since that decision, they have actually put some more money in. They’re going to be bringing in more frequent rail service on existing rail lines, but not running the light rail out here.
Chris: So, more frequent Metrolink trains, like we’re staring at right now?
Beau: Yeah. They’re going to be increasing the frequency of the San Bernardino Line between the Rancho Cucamonga station and the A Line. They’re going to be connecting over to pick up the train here in Montclair, get over to the A Line, transfer over there, and ride the A Line. So it’s sort of a compromise situation.
Chris: Oh, to the Pomona station.
Beau: Yes. Yes. Sorry, yeah.
Chris: Okay. So I looked at the cost-benefit numbers you included in your piece, and in 10 years it would suggestively cost $53 million and bring in $186 million in economic activity. Over 20 years, that would cost $106 million and bring in $372 million. So is that just too long to wait?
Beau: Yeah, no. I mean, I think if you’re Montclair, it’s definitely worth it. But if you are a city elsewhere in San Bernardino County, it may not be on your radar.
If you’re up in Barstow, you’re not worried about this rail line. The rail line you care about is the one going to Vegas. So from their standpoint, there are other priorities.
You have to get, I think, a 29-member board, and you have to get 15 of them on board. That’s a tough task. And the vote against it wasn’t unanimous by any means. It was 15 to 11 that day.
Chris: So now what about Montclair? What’s the basis of its lawsuit? What is the city actually suing for?
Beau: They’re saying they have several grounds for suing. First off, this has been a long-term commitment, and there are some contracts they feel like have been violated.
There was a ballot measure where the revenue was specifically meant to go to this project, and now that revenue is not going there. They’re saying that’s a violation of the law.
The makeup of Montclair is largely Hispanic and largely poor, and they’re also saying there’s a discriminatory aspect to this.
Chris: But doesn’t the makeup of Montclair look a lot like the makeup of most of San Bernardino County?
Beau: Not really. I know that’s an LA County perspective on things, but no. Montclair is poorer and browner than a lot of the county as well.
It’s also worth noting that San Bernardino County is, of course, the largest county in the country. When you look at national maps, Trinity County looks like an error in the corner compared to San Bernardino County.
Transit in San Bernardino County is a really challenging thing because you have to go a very long distance, much of which, especially once you get away from the urban core where we are right now, is spread out and not very densely populated.
So it’s very expensive to run rail lines out there, or bus lines or other transit lines.
Chris: So does this lawsuit seem like it actually has legs? Could SBCTA be made to fund the A Line, or is this a shakedown at best?
Beau: Honestly, it’s hard to tell. It could simply be that they are registering their displeasure in the most serious way possible. It could also be that they think there’s a chance that there are going to be some changes.
I mean, they are citing state legislation. They’re saying that this decision is in conflict with local ballot measures. That may be enough to convince a judge, but, you know, who knows?
Chris: And what’s been your sense of Inland Empire residents’ response since this was defunded a year ago?
Beau: It’s always interesting to me when we do transportation stories, and you know this better than I do. People are really engaged with this issue.
This was one of our most popular stories when we published it, and people are really interested in it. I heard from a lot of readers, including people who were not Montclair residents and were not likely to ever ride the A Line, but they had thoughts about it, whether it was fair or not.
Chris: Beau Yarbrough, reporter for Southern California News Group. Are you particularly attached to one newspaper or the other there?
Beau: I’m with the Inland Empire papers mostly. That’s the San Bernardino Sun, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the Riverside Press-Enterprise and the Redlands Daily Facts.
Chris: That’s where you can read his coverage. Thank you for appearing with us on SGV Connect.
Beau: Happy to be here.
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