The Brief

Four new A Line stations in the San Gabriel Valley opened to the public on Friday, bringing the total length of the light rail to nearly 60 miles as it now extends into Pomona.

The extension brings the line to within just a few miles of the original goal of building out to Montclair, which wasn’t possible due to budget shortfalls and might never come to fruition after the county-level body overseeing transportation in San Bernardino decided earlier this month not to support the project.

Still, Habib Balian, the CEO of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, which has overseen the expansion of the A-line, said the $1.5 billion extension to Pomona has been a long time coming.

“It's probably 20 years overdue,” Balian told LAist. “But we're happy to bring it into fruition at this point.”

Metro’s CEO, Stephanie Wiggins, called the extension a major accomplishment.

“An executive heading to her job downtown, a student on the way to class, or a family going to a Dodgers game, Metro serves all of us,” Wiggins said. “We are part of shared communities, and those communities are interconnected here in the San Gabriel Valley.”

What to know about the extension

The new stations are located in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona. The addition brings the total number of stations on the A Line to 48.

The north-south segment of the train runs from Long Beach through downtown, Northeast L.A. and Pasadena. The four new stations extend the eastern segment, moving the terminus from Azusa to Pomona.

The Glendora, San Dimas and Pomona stations connect with the Foothill Transit bus network. You can also catch the San Bernardino Metrolink at the Pomona station.

There will be more trains running along the A Line now that it’s extended, according to Balian.

Metro says trains will run every 8 minutes during peak weekday hours. During off-peak weekday and daytime weekend hours, trains will run every 10 minutes. In the later hours, the frequency dips to a train every 20 minutes.

Metro estimates a trip from Union Station in downtown L.A. to Pomona will take just over an hour.

The A Line is one of the most popular L.A. Metro rail lines with around 1.8 million boardings per month since the beginning of last year.

The Glendora to Pomona segment of the A Line will open to the public on Sept. 19.

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The significance of the extension

There are 19 college campuses along the route from Azusa to Pomona.

“This particular line is sometimes called the brain train,” Ed Reece, chairman of the construction authority board, said.

Lucas LeVieux, an urban planning student at Cal Poly Pomona, said the A Line extension will be a “game-changer” that will help the school progress toward its climate and enrollment goals.

"Cal Poly Pomona students are really thirsty for quality public transit on campus,” said LeVieux, who serves as a student representative on the university’s Alternative Transportation Committee. “Even with over 14,000 parking spots, I hear students constantly complain about parking availability — to say nothing of the congestion, cost, safety risk and environmental impact of all those cars.”

University of La Verne President Risa Dickson said the expanded Metro rail opens more opportunities for students. Students at junior colleges, for example, need access to housing, she said.

“If they can get on a line at one place and get off at our campus, they can live in our dorms at a much lower rate it will cost them to rent in the community,” Dickson said. “It also enables them to have access to the dining services, have access to the campus community, and it makes it much easier for them to think about their future in a four-year degree format.”

Given the breadth of areas the A Line serves, Reece said the four new stations will help with mobility during the 2028 L.A. Olympics.

“There's very much an opportunity for riders, enthusiasts [and] visitors to jump on and be able to attend some of these events at some of these venues,” he said.

The L.A. County Fairplex, where the annual fair is held and where cricket will be played during the 2028 Games, is a short distance from the new La Verne stop.

Five years and $1.5 billion later

The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority has overseen the planning, design and construction of A Line extensions since the state created the independent agency in 1998.

The A Line was formerly known as the Gold Line, hence the name of the agency.

The independent agency began major construction on the 9.1 mile-long extension in 2020. It turned the project over to Metro earlier this year for continued testing and future operation.

This extension was originally conceived to include an additional two stations in Claremont and Montclair. But due to budget issues, the plan was changed in 2019 to complete the extension in two phases, with the first bringing the A Line to Pomona.

“It was determined that it was more important to get the project built as far as we could,” Balian said.

The $1.5 billion extension was primarily funded through Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for transportation and mobility projects that L.A. County voters approved in 2016. Unused funding from the Pasadena to Azusa extension, as well as state and local government dollars also supported the project.

Uncertainty for future extension

Whether the train makes it to Montclair is unclear.

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority announced earlier in September that without a seat on the governing board of the Construction Authority, which would build the project, it was pulling funding from the Montclair extension.

“This decision was not made hastily,” the agency said in a statement. “It comes after nearly a decade of deliberation about the ever-escalating timelines and costs associated with the extension, coupled with the Board’s frustration over the absence of local control in decision-making.”

Balian said the dispute and ensuing decision over the governing structure was “unfortunate.”

“ Although it's worked in every other city along the way over the last 25 miles, it was not something that they were interested in doing or felt comfortable doing,” Balian said.

The agency is still looking to build at least one additional station in Claremont. Balian said the Construction Authority is hoping to award a design contract for that extension in November, followed by a construction contract in two years.

“ In the intervening years, we'll look to San Bernardino to come up with an alternative,” Balian said.

LAX officials are considering a proposal Tuesday to increase the fees rideshare companies are charged to access the airport.

Currently, rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft generally pass a $4 to $5 airport fee along to their customers. You might see this listed as a line item on your receipt as an “LAX Airport Surcharge.”

But the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Commissioners could vote to increase that fee by as much as $2 to $8 depending on where the rideshare picks you up or drops you off.

The idea behind the proposal is to encourage the use of the long-awaited, much-delayed and over-budget Automated People Mover once it opens and decrease congestion in the central terminal area, the area of the airport that’s also known as the horseshoe.

David Reich, a deputy executive director for the city agency that manages the airport, told LAist that if the proposal is approved, LAX doesn’t plan on increasing the fee until after the Automated People Mover opens, which could be later this year.

The proposed increases

When the Automated People Mover opens, there will be new curb space for drop-off and pick-up. Known as the “ground transport center,” this new curb space will be a 4-minute trip from the terminal area via the Automated People Mover, according to Reich.

LAX-it will shut down as a rideshare and taxi lot once the train opens, Reich said.

If the proposal is approved, getting an Uber or Lyft to and from the ground transport center will come with a $6 airport fee.

Even once the Automated People Mover opens, you will still be able to get rides directly to and from the curbs along the horseshoe, but they will come with a $12 fee.

The proposed increases would also apply to taxi and limousine services, which currently operate under a slightly different fee structure than rideshare companies.

The increased fees are expected to generate as much as $100 million in the first year the Automated People Mover is usable, according to a report to the board.

Why the different fees for the different locations?

In a report to the board, Reich said the Automated People Mover represents a "significant investment” that aims to “fundamentally reshape how vehicles move through the airport.”

The idea behind having a higher fee for direct access to the curbs along the horseshoe is to encourage “use of new, high-capacity infrastructure” and preserve central terminal access for trips “that most require it.”

Uber is trying to fight the increases

Uber is trying to mobilize the public to fight the proposed fee increases.

“Raising the LAX rideshare fee from $5 to $12 at the curb would punish travelers, working families, and seniors who depend on affordable, reliable transportation,” Danielle Lam, the head of local California policy for Uber, said in a statement.

On Monday, Uber sent an email to passengers who recently used the rideshare service, urging them to write to city officials to “stop this massive fee hike.”

Lyft has not responded to a request for comment.

Ten state lawmakers who are members of the L.A. County delegation sent a letter on Monday to the board expressing their “strong opposition” to the proposed increases.

“Many Angelenos rely on a mix of options, including rideshare services and friends or family dropping off loved ones,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “Managing congestion cannot realistically rely on steep fee increases for certain transportation options.”

Eight of the 10 legislators who signed the letter have received campaign contributions from Uber or Lyft, according to an LAist analysis of state campaign contribution data.

Other ways to access the airport

Now is probably a good time to remind folks that there are other ways to get to the airport that don’t involve rideshares, taxis or even lifts from families and friends.

The FlyAway bus offers regularly scheduled rides from the airport to Union Station in downtown L.A. and Van Nuys. You can see the schedules here. 

Last year, the countywide transportation agency unveiled the LAX/Metro Transit center, which is accessible from the C and K rail lines and several bus routes. For now, an LAX shuttle is bringing travelers from the station to the airport. It will be one of the stops on the Automated People Mover once it opens.

The Newport Beach City Council is considering demolishing part of its quirky, beloved sculpture garden in Civic Center Park to make way for a new police station.

The city has been trying to figure out how to replace its aging police headquarters for years. It bought a property in 2022 with that intent. But an ad hoc City Council committee decided, controversially, it might be better to instead build a new station on the parkland next to city hall.

What’s so great about the sculpture garden?

The sculpture garden is a “museum without walls” treasured by art and nature lovers alike. It houses the quirky and once-controversial “Bunnyhenge,” included on the popular Atlas Obscura travel guide. Opponents of putting a new police headquarters on park grounds say it would compromise the environment, and decimate the sculpture garden.

What do supporters of the new station idea say?

Supporters say the current police station, built in 1973, is long overdue for an upgrade, and that the police force needs more space for things like servers to store digital evidence. The council ad hoc committee that studied the issue says the Civic Center parkland makes the most sense for a new building because the city already owns the land, and it would consolidate the city’s main services in one place.

Is it a done deal?

Far from it. The City Council is holding a study session Tuesday to present the plan publicly and gather input. If the council decides to go forward, the next step would be to hire a consultant to design the building and get started on an environmental impact report.

Here’s how to learn more and weigh in:

A new exhibit in L.A. — Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard — arrives this weekend, highlighting the cultural impact, history and artistry of handmade skateboards.

It’s the latest exhibit at Craft in America Center, a museum and library that highlights handcrafted artwork.

Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said before 1962, it wasn’t possible to buy a skateboard in a store.

“Skateboarding started as a craft,” Huber said on AirTalk, LAst 89.3’s daily news program. “Somewhere in the 50s until 1962, if you wanted to sidewalk surf, as they called it, you had to make your own out of roller skates.”

What to expect

Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center based in Los Angeles, told LAist’s AirTalk the exhibit was tricky to curate.

“What we wanted to do was focus on both the history and then expand into how this has been an object that people have interpreted in so many different ways since the very beginning,” Zaiden said.

Artists who craft skateboards not only think of design, but also of the features that give riders the ability to do tricks, such as wheelies and kickflips.

“The ways that people have constructed boards, engineered boards, design boards … people are really renegade, which I think is really the spirit of skateboarding overall,” Zaiden said. “This very independent, out-of-the-box approach and making boards that allow them to do all kinds of wacky tricks and do all kinds of things that no one imagined possible physically with their body, but through the object of the board.”

Know before you go

The exhibit at Craft in America Center opens to the public on Saturday. Admission is free. The museum is open from noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.