SGV Connect 128 – Foothill Gold Line Extension

Damien Newton  0:00  

So we're recording live from the Foothill Gold Line Extension offices. I'm Damien Newton. I am interviewing today the CEO Habib, Balian.. So thank you so much for being here today. 

Obviously, there's been a lot of news around the extension, a lot of the progress that's been happening in the press. We wanted our chance for of our annual sit down to catch up on things for Streetsblog readers that maybe don't read the SGV Tribune. 

So, let's start with the basics. There's been a lot of coverage, as we mentioned, especially the last couple months, as we're getting closer and closer to a handoff. But can we explain where exactly we are as far as completing phase two, and what cities and stations could be expecting to see a station open as soon as early next well, let's say mid-next year. 

Habib Balian  0:58  

So we're about 90% complete with the project, that's four stations in four cities, from the border of Glendora and Azusa all the way to La Verne, San Dimas, Pomona. That's the route we have right now. It's about 9.1 miles. We're almost complete. You'll go out there today, I hope, and see the right of way and see all the activity that's taking place. You'll see the stations nearly complete. You'll see the bridges built. You see all of the crossings complete, equipment in place, and you may even see some train testing out there on the right of way. 

So we're very pleased with the status of the project and our ability to turn it over to Metro. Very soon, we'll reach substantial completion, January 3. That means that the contractor will be done with the majority of the project, and they will start the process of then transferring it to Metro and then training their operators and putting it into service sometime, hopefully, summer of next year.

Damien Newton  1:58  

Over the weekend, I actually listened to the first one of these interviews that we did together. We did it over the phone, and it was pretty much the same time in the timeline for phase one of the extension. 

And I asked this question then, and I asked it now, because I think it's interesting that this is a project that really could never end. At the time, we joked it's going to end when it gets to Atlanta, 

I guess the easy way to say it would be, what is phase three? What is the plans for after the handoff? Like there, it seems as though this is going to be a project that becomes really a Southern California Regional project over time. So what is the, what's the plans to keep going?

Habib Balian  2:38  

Well, our plan now is to enable passengers to get from from Montclair all the way to Long Beach. That's the plan. So we're going to be opening, hopefully next summer, to Pomona, and then at the same time, we're going through the procurement process to bring on a contractor to build the next phase. So we're calling that phase 2b, which gets you from Pomona to Montclair. So that's an additional 3.4 miles to have two stations. And it'll take you to the Montclair Transit Center, which is a huge bus hub and transit hub in the Inland Empire. So this will be a great system that, again, will be the one of the longest light rail systems in the country, and it'll take you from Montclair to Long Beach.

Damien Newton  3:25  

Okay, so, “don't call it phase three. Don't call it phase three.” Is that because there is a phase three like in the ether somewhere.

Habib Balian  3:33  

Our authority goes to Montclair, our state authority, our mandate, to build the project, went from Union Station downtown all the way to Montclair. So that's our goal.

Damien Newton  3:45  

I'm going to put that as a maybe. 

So obviously, we've always been excited about this project at Streetsblog. 

I remember that Albert and I used to sit at Metro board meetings in 2007 and he had the Iwillride blog at the time, and I was writing Streetsblog…the early days of Streetsblog, and I thought, “wow, this is a fun project that's just never going to happen.” 

And, you know, here we are. I’m middle aged and and the project is moving forward. But not everybody has been as excited. There are people at some towns that think that the train will be bad for their community, bad for traffic, or bad for something. 

So how has the agency responded over the years to community members that are worried about the train for whatever reason, be it be traffic, be it be development patterns, unhoused riders? What's been the way to interact with those people and maybe bring them over, or at least, at the very least make them feel more comfortable?

Habib Balian  4:49  

Well, this project, this phase of the project, as well as the previous phases, really enjoyed great community support at every level of government as well, which is very unusual for a project. So we really haven't had a lot of detractors.

That said, of course, you know, there is concerns about how this will affect the communities, but for the most part, because of the placement of the right of way, it sits in an area of most of these cities that really hasn't been developed. 

So there's a lot of room for infill. There's a lot of need for housing in these cities. And I think the city managers of all these cities, as well as the elected officials, see this as a great opportunity. Just blocks from this office, you'll see everything that's taking place here in Monrovia. I don't know if you have an opportunity to do that today, but maybe Albert will make sure that you do drive around some of these that's literally hundreds of feet from here. 

That's all happened just because of the Gold Line. And I think all the cities see that in their future, there's a state requirement to build more housing. This is part and parcel of that, a way to make sure that there's transit available to people, that they don't have to build parking structures or put so much space for parking in all of these developments. And that's huge for the cities.

Damien Newton  6:01  

So let's flip the question to that in the way you started to to a more positive spin on it, where we're talking about the downtown and development that's happening around here. 

I remember doing a bike tour when they opened the East Side extension for the gold line, and we ran into a city council member who was telling us all the things they were going to do in the future to make the stations more accessible and make them fit into the community…and this was two days before it opened. 

It seems like the strategy here has really been to talk to the communities ahead of time. When we've talked to city managers at some of these cities, or the DOT people, they're going on and on about the transit oriented development, the revitalization of downtowns, was that an essential part of the strategy to bring this train line out? Or has this been a byproduct of what's happening?

Habib Balian  7:07  

Well, the train is the impetus for all of this. I think that's what starts it all. And when this started way back when we went through the environmental phase, we worked with the cities to understand their vision for the way things are going to look like in the next 30 years, and that's what we base the station locations and the footprint of the parking, the whole campus that makes up our train station. That environment was all placed with the city's vision in mind. So  the cities were way ahead of the curve on this. They knew that they had to do something. They knew this was coming, and they knew they had to plan for it, so we worked hand in glove with all the cities to make sure this fits within their long term plans.

Damien Newton  7:50  

I think people that know “Streetsblogger me” Know I live in West LA. I live right near the train line there, and I do not know one person that refers to it by its letter name. It's the Expo Line. So I know Metro pushes very hard that we're all supposed to refer to these things by letter names. I even sometimes get emails if I put “Expo Line” in a story. So in your head, when you are thinking about this project, have you ever referred to it as anything besides the Gold Line Extension?

Habib Balian  8:26  

I refer to it as the Gold Line, and it'll be the Gold Line, and we're talking about it as the Gold Line through construction, I expect. But when Metro takes it over, they will turn it into the L line and operate it as the L line as they have in the past.

Oh, sorry, that's the A line. The A Line right, was the L line in the interim, and then they turned into A line before it becomes final. It will be the, it's finally the A Line. And this will turn into the A line.

Damien Newton  9:01  

Oh, I get it. Look, I'm only in my mid 40s, but I think I'm too old to relearn all these transit line names. So I'm with you. 

Habib Balian  9:10  

We were the Blue Line. It was the Blue Line. Remember that? You remember that originally?

Damien Newton  9:14  

Yeah, and then they wanted to hook it up to the Gold Line. That made sense. It was more of an East LA sort of branding, but yeah,

Habib Balian  9:24  

Now that's changed. We don't connect with the Eastside anymore. We go directly to Long Beach.

Damien Newton  9:30  

With the Regional Connector, which we no longer call the Regional Connector. 

At the end, like, if there's something we missed, you know, we, we didn't want to make this too long an interview, so it was accessible to people to just pick up and listen to. But if there's anything you want to to hit on that we didn't cover, you know, please feel free to just, just say it. I always joke, we can edit in the question later to make us look better. But we never, we never actually do that,

Chris Greenspon  9:58  

And we never will.

Habib Balian  10:01  

I just think I'm excited to hear what people think about the project when it opens next year. If they come out now, they'll see a lot of stations almost complete. They'll see artwork in place. It's all being installed now, and I look forward to see people's reaction and then to see the development that happens in the future. It's going to be great for these cities, and I hope folks look along phase one and phase two a and see the great things that have happened in Pasadena and Monrovia, Highland Park, Mount Washington, Chinatown. 

I mean, it's just a great system, and it's, it's been the stimulus for a lot of wonderful development for the cities.

We'll have a station dedication to each of the cities next spring. Our dates will be released in the next week or two, but they will be in the May period.

Chris Greenspon  10:59  

All right, so let's get on with our photo tour. Damien, yeah, let's go all right, make sure to check that out. Streetsblog LA  you hit and savvy, SGV Connect, listeners.