Trains will begin revenue service on Los Angeles’Â Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension from March 5 next year, it has been announced.
Testing is now in full swing along the route, which will extend the Metro Gold Line from the current Sierra Madre Villa station terminus 20 kilometres east to Azusa.
Major construction works were completed on the $1 billion project in September 2015 and the line, which is forecast to carry 13,600 passengers every day, has now been formally handed over to Metro.
Metro will now need to “burn-in” its new fleet of light rail vehicles from Kinkisharyo as well as prepping its new operations facility in Monrovia.
LA County Supervisor and Metro board chair Mark Ridley-Thomas said: “The opening of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension will bring Metro Rail to new San Gabriel Valley communities, and provide a relief valve for the increasingly congested 210 freeway.
“Its opening is a significant milestone: Metro is delivering on its promise to lead a transit revolution.
“Work is well underway to add four additional rail lines and a total of 32 new miles of service to L.A. County’s rail system in the coming years.”
