Metro officials announced recently that starting June 27 all Gold Line trains will run from East Los Angeles to Azusa on a seven-minute frequency during peak hours.
The change is a temporary one-year pilot program, and will reduce the 12-minute frequency occurring now from Azusa to Pasadena.
Metro officials said that during April 2016, there were an estimated 50,219 boardings on the entire Gold Line route compared to 41,962 in April 2015. Peak-hour ridership on the Foothill Extension already equals ridership levels on the Union Station to East L.A. segment, which opened in 2009.
“The change is a one-year pilot program, allowing Metro [to] monitor ridership, on-time performance of trains and customer satisfaction to determine if the change should be made permanent,” said Steve Hymon, editor of the Metro blog The Source.
Metro officials expect passenger loads to be more consistent from train to train and expect wait times at Union Station to be reduced.
Metro officials also announced news that may alleviate the parking snafu at Azusa’s two Gold Line stations.
The Azusa Downtown parking structure has 547 spaces, with 200 reserved for Metro customers, 145 for the city of Azusa and 202 for Foothill Transit patrons.
With Azusa officials beginning to implement parking districts to eliminate Gold Line parking overflow in surrounding neighborhoods and with a severe lack of parking in Azusa’s two structures, the Foothill Transit spaces in the Downtown Station will be temporarily opened to all riders, Metro announced.
The 202 Foothill Transit spaces are reserved between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. After that time, any Gold Line rider may park in available spaces.
Foothill Transit patrons parking during the above mentioned hours can obtain a free parking permit here.
