San Gabriel Valley - Transportation

Transportation

Foothill Transit and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority provide bus transit services throughout the valley. The main Metro bus terminal is located in El Monte. The Metrolink commuter train runs westward to Downtown Los Angeles and eastward to San Bernardino through the valley. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority also operates the Metro Gold Line light rail from Downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena, and a plan to extend it east through several additional foothill communities to the county line is under consideration. Currently, Metro is unique among the nations transportation agencies. It serves as transportation planner and coordinator, designer, builder and operator for one of the countrys largest, most populous counties. Besides operating over 2,000 peak-hour buses on an average weekday, Metro also designed, built and now operates 73.1 miles (117.6 km) of Metro Rail service. The Metro Rail system consists of the Metro Red Line subway system, the Metro Blue Line, the Metro Green Line, and the Metro Gold Line. In total, the Metro Rail system serves 62 rail stations stretching from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles to North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, and from downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena.

Several cities provide their own in-city transportation shuttles. Cities known to provide such service are:

• Alhambra
• Baldwin Park
• La Puente
• Montebello
• Monterey Park
• West Covina
• Arcadia
• Monrovia
• Temple City

The San Gabriel Valley is served by several major freeways:

• the Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210 (California) and State Route 210)
• the Ventura Freeway (State Route 134)

• the San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10)
• the Pomona Freeway (State Route 60)
• the Pasadena Freeway (State Route 110)
• the Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710)
• the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605)
• the Orange Freeway (State Route 57)

I-710 ends abruptly at the western border of Alhambra, near California State University, Los Angeles. A small noncontiguous and mostly unsigned spur of I-710 starts again at California Boulevard in Pasadena and ends at the junction of I-210 and SR 134. Since the late 1950s, the plan to connect the two portions of I-710 (formerly SR 7) has generated a long, contentious debate, as well as prolonged litigation. Many residents in South Pasadena fear losing their homes, some of them historically precious Craftsman, and businesses to clear the way for construction. The MTA and Caltrans, an ardent proponent of the extension, has recently proposed the idea of constructing an underground tunnel to complete the so-called "710 gap." Because the entire valley suffers from severe traffic congestion, the I-710 completion plan is a major issue in the politics of all valley cities, and political candidates at all levels of government routinely assert positions on the issue.

At the end of the San Gabriel Valley, the eastern freeway segment of SR 210 (formerly designated SR 30 and still signed as such in some places in San Bernardino County) between SR 57 and I-15 had been a source of similar contention in the bordering community of La Verne, but was finally constructed and added to the Foothill Freeway in 2002.

State Route 39 leads north into the San Gabriel Mountains to the Crystal Lake Recreation Area. The portion connecting the recreation area to the Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2) has been closed to the public since the early 1970s due to massive damage and rockslides.

General aviation is served by El Monte Airport (EMT) in El Monte, and Brackett Field (POC) in Pomona.