Enough money has been put up by the California State Transportation Agency to ensure the light rail Gold Line will reach San Bernardino County.
The Gold Line, consisting of two tracks which accommodates one train moving essentially west to east and the other running east to west, is a dedicated passenger transport system currently extending from Downtown Los Angeles to Azusa. It uses light cars and fuel-efficient engines, with staggered departures and arrivals of as little as every ten minutes during peak commuting times. The Gold Line is currently being extended to Glendora. The first westbound departure on weekdays from the station at Azusa Pacific College occurs at 3:14 a.m., with the final westbound departure at 14 minutes after midnight. The route stops include Irwindale, Duarte, Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierra Madre Villa, Allen Avenue in Pasadena, Near Central Park in Pasadena, South Pasadena, Highland Park, Heritage Square and Union Station. The entire commute lasts an average of 48 to 49 minutes. The first eastbound departure from Union Station on weekdays occurs at 4 a.m., with the final eastbound departure from that location at 12:50 a.m. The route stops include the stations used for westbound travel in reverse order. The commute lasts on average 48 to 49 minutes. The Gold Line is heavily used, with its cars nearing capacity on virtually every run between the 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
Construction on the Gold Line extension between Azusa and Glendora is ongoing and nearing completion. Thereafter, the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority is set to connect the rail line with the line simultaneously undergoing construction from Glendora to Pomona.

On October 31, the California State Transportation Agency, known by its acronym CasSTA, apportioned $798 million to the Los Angeles Metro Rail System for the Gold Line. Also known simply as Metro Rail, the Los Angeles Metro Rail System is a network of six urban rail transit lines serving Los Angeles County, of which four are light rail and two are rapid transit. After Metro Rail made arrangements to pass the $798 million to the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, that entity’s board on November 14 voted to accept the $798 million by agreeing to accept the conditions upon which the money was offered, namely that it be used to construct, using required open bidding procedures, to hire a contractor to construct a further 3.2-mile extension of the Gold Line from Pomona to Claremont, near the furthest eastward projection of Los Angeles County. Thereafter, the construction of the Gold Line, which to this point has taken place entirely in Los Angeles County, will transition into San Bernardino County.
San Bernardino County’s Transportation Agency, which bears the somewhat predictable name the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority or its acronym SBCTA, had previously encouraged the concept of having the Gold Line extend into San Bernardino County, with a foreseeable goal of extending it to Ontario International Airport.
In 2019, however, at the October 10, 2019 SBCTA transit committee meeting, San Bernardino Countyu Transportation Authority executive Raymond Wolfe proposed putting the kibosh on the Gold Line making the first leg of its progression to Ontario Airport, consisting of constructing the dual tracks one-and-a-quarter miles from Claremont to the Montclair Transit Station. When the matter was put before the 12-member panel, eight of the transit committee’s members – Third District San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe and Rancho Cucamonga Mayor Lloyd Dennis Michael, then-Big Bear Councilman Bill Jahn, then-Yucaipa Councilman David Avila, Highland Councilman Larry McCallon, Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren, Colton Mayor Frank Navarro, and Rialto Mayor Deborah Robertson – voted to back Wolfe. Only Montclair Mayor John Dutrey, Ontario City Councilman Alan Wapner and Chino Hills Mayor Ray Marquez opposed his plan to scrub the county’s support of the Gold Line.
The October 10, 2019 transit committee vote included a motion to have SBCTA return $41 million the authority had be provided to carry out that construction effort in the form of a State of California Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program grant.
Moreover the vote sent a signal to the governor and the state legislature with regard to earmarking any future funding for the Gold Line extension into San Bernardino County.
That unfortunate chapter with regard to the future of light-rail commuting San Bernardino County persisted for more than four years, as the plans to take the Gold Line beyond Claremont lay dead, or at least dormant. On July 8, 2024, largely at the instigation of Los Angeles County transportation officials and the importuning State Senator Anthony Portantino and Assemblyman Chris Holden, both of whose districts lie primarily in Los Angeles County but which overlap into western San Bernardino County, the California State Transportation Agency earmarked just under $500 million to be used to extend the Gold Line into San Bernardino County.
The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority is now back on board for a light rail ride between Claremont and Montclair. Completion of that project is about three years away, awaiting the Gold Line reaching Claremont, at which point the constructing the line through to Montclair can begin. At this point, $80 million has been set aside by the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority for the project. Many San Bernardino County officials are lamenting the 2019 decision to surrender the $41 million California Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program grant back to Sacramento.
With the reception of the $798 million originating with the California State Transportation Agency intends to and passed along to it by the Los Angeles Metro Rail System, the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority intends to extend the Gold Line from Glendora to San Dimas to LaVerne to Pomona.