City gets to work on Foothill

Watch out for those storm drains, oh on second thought maybe you can sue the county flood control district for a rebate, a really huge rebate...

Rancho Cucamonga is the only foothill city to be left out of the Metro Gold Line. Every city along the foothills including Upland gets a station inside their city with transit development popping up around the stations.

The Gold Line was planned to cross Rancho along the historic Pacific Electric RAIL line but instead the city built a bicycle trail. This Pacific Electric "Trail" has cut the city in half. It's like they built another 19th street across the entire city.

I would have no problem waiting a few seconds for a light rail train to go by with a couple hundred people, but stopping 50 cars on every street in the city for a couple of joggers is ridiculous.

As you wait on say Arichibald, you see two people cross the street. As you look around you see at least 50 cars stopped at the red light idling. Very inefficient creating even more congestion.

The Gold Line was to travel across the historic Pacific Electric Rail Line to Miliken Avenue. Then it was to turn south along Miliken to Foothill where the Victoria Gardens Station was planned to be. Then the line was to continue down Miliken to the Ontario Mills Station. The final station would be located at the airport where the California High Speed Rail Station is also planned.

The Victoria Gardens Metro Gold Line Station would have been one of the busiest with the exception of the airport, the mills, and the Pasadena Station. The Victoria Gardens attracts 22 million people per year and is one of the largest tourist attractions in the state. The Gold Line is missing a golden opportunity in the golden city of Cucamonga.

The Ontario Mills Metro Gold Line Station would have been one of the most successful stations on the entire line. The Ontario Mills Mall is one of the largest tourist attractions in the state with 26 million visitors per year, more than Disneyland and California Adventure combined.

The fact is that the Gold Line will instead turn south before Rancho Cucamonga and the city will get a very poor station location on Arrow Highway. The rail line will instead go directly to the airport and to the high speed rail station on Vineyard and the 10 Freeway. Here there is a large undeveloped piece of land called the Meredith Property that will one day house the tallest buildings in Ontario reaching 20, 30, 40, and even 50 floors. This is a great station location, but by missing the major activity centers in the Inland Valley, the rail line could see very low ridership in the East. If I could get on the Gold Line at the Victoria Gardens and take it to Pasadena, I would. If I had to travel to the most south western portion of the city to take the train, I wouldn't.

The Metro Gold Line is missing two of the largest activity centers which combined see 48 million visitors per year.

They had better leave room next to this "bicycle friendly" bridge for a future light rail bridge. I hope they know that the entire city was built by this historic RAIL line. By tearing out the tracks for a bike lane, the city is sealing it's fate. The tracks that built the city have been turned into a bike lane leaving Rancho Cucamonga as the only foothill city left out of the Metro Gold Line.

The historic Etiwanda train station ordered built by President Lincoln himself sits unused. The Jack Benny Statue...also now useless. Pasadena, Azuza, and CUCamonga!!! Now it will be Pasadena, Azusa, and Ontario :(

The streets in our great city will quickly go from okay to totally failing. The freeways will also fail miserably in the near future. Good choice Rancho. How else can we destroy the future economy of our city? As we tear out our old historic rail line, Redlands is busy building their new light rail line into San Bernardino. Rancho is going with the poor mans bus system. Lame.

Maybe next we can tear down city hall and replace it with a parking lot. Then we can have the circus come to town.

Actually Matt, even Upland's and Montclair's portion of the PE Trail uses the same right of way as Rancho's. The trail itself is technically property of SANBAG, and not of any city along the route.

There are also already plans in progress for rehabing the historic Etiwanda station, by the Etiwanda Historical Society.

The other problem with that particular route is that it travels through several residential neighborhoods and schools, especially Grapeland on Etiwanda.

And finally the PE right-of-way was actually the most expensive of the various routes, according to the folks who did the proposals for the Gold Line.

Speak for yourself Matt, sure it sucks to get stuck at so many red lights now, but thus is the nature of living in a City such as Rancho, they have built on every possible square inch of land and packed in many residents, but the PE trail is amazing!

That trail has brought health and fitness to so many people that would have never gone out walking, riding, or running before. It is wonderful to be on the trail in the evening and see all of the families walking or biking. Everyone is very friendly, and it is a great centerpiece to our community.

Try it sometime - take your family/dog/bike out there once in a while and maybe that will cheer you up. :)

One hundred percent correct D'Lorah. I love our bike/walk trail, I utilize it daily, but wouldn't it have been nice to have even more time to enjoy the trail after a nice commute on the Gold Line. Once again we miss the important job creating, money making facets of City. Instead we rely on Redevelopments low income housing adventures.

Oh Stephen:
"The other problem with that particular route is that it travels through several residential neighborhoods and schools, especially Grapeland in Etiwanda."

OH NO...what will we do! The last thing we want is a useful light rail system that travels through actual neighborhoods!

No, you are totally wrong. Has anyone ever heard of a NIMBY because Stephen is the perfect example of one. A NIMBY is a person who opposes major projects that will help the greater good because of a selfish childish suburban mentality. Not In My Backyard (NIMBY). Stephen...you're a NIMBY.

The train stations would have been used more because they ARE close to dense suburban neighborhoods. We WANT the train to "travel through several residential neighborhoods and schools, especially Grapeland in Etiwanda."

Otherwise you will get an underutilized route and gridlock traffic in the future. Why is it so hard to understand that people's house values will go up significantly due to these new links to the almost endless amenities.

So they are going to rehabilitate the historic Etiwanda station into a museum. So the Etiwanda Historical Society is turning the train station that built the city into a museum instead of bringing the tracks and station back. Pitiful.

And Finally, the 10 Freeway route was the most expensive route according to the "folks" who did the proposals for the Gold Line, not the PE ROW. See it's people like you who have no vision, no energy, and know nothing about transit.

What about the 46 million people per year that drive to these two Inland Valley malls? This is not a problem? Could a light rail line have fixed these transit deficient malls? YES. Would this alleviate traffic gridlock in our activity centers? YES. Would these two mall stations be some of the busiest places on the line? YES. Is Pasadena scared people might Shop Rancho? YES.