The San Bernardino Line is a Metrolink line running between

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

east through the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...

and the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

, with limited express service to Redlands. It is one of the three initial lines on the original Metrolink system, along with the Santa Clarita Line (now the Antelope Valley Line) and the Ventura County Line. , 18 round trips run between Los Angeles and San Bernardino on weekdays with one trip continuing on to Redlands. It was the first of the seven Metrolink lines to run on both Saturday and Sunday, with 8 trains to San Bernardino on Saturdays and Sundays. Two Saturday and two Sunday trains would continue to Riverside–Downtown station until July 5, 2014, when weekend service on the 91 Line (now the

91/Perris Valley Line The 91/Perris Valley Line, formerly known as the 91 Line, is a commuter rail route operated by Metrolink that runs from Los Angeles to Perris in Southern California, mostly paralleling State Route 91 between and stations. Operating since M ...

) began.

Route

The line is owned by Metrolink. After leaving Union Station and crossing the

Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River (), historically known as by the Tongva and the by the Spanish, is a major river in Los Angeles County, California. Its headwaters are in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and it flows nearly from Canoga Park ...

, the line follows the San Bernardino Freeway and El Monte Busway until just after the Cal State L.A. station; it then runs in the median of the San Bernardino Freeway to the El Monte Station along the former route of the Pacific Electric Railway's San Bernardino Line. Starting at El Monte, the line parallels the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

's Sunset Route (ex- Southern Pacific) for a few miles before turning northeast at Bassett onto a Southern Pacific branch. At the former Southern Pacific/

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned Public transport, mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electr ...

- Santa Fe crossing, it switches to the Santa Fe route; from Claremont to just west of San Bernardino it follows what was the Santa Fe's Pasadena Subdivision (and before that the Second District of the LA Division, the Santa Fe passenger main line). From San Bernardino Depot, the line follows the Santa Fe's Redlands branch line towards Downtown Redlands. The San Bernardino Line is mostly single track with seven passing sidings and short sections of

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

near Covina, between Pomona and Montclair, west of Fontana, and throughout San Bernardino.

History

Los Angeles County Transportation Commission The Southern California Rapid Transit District (almost always referred to as ''RTD'' or rarely as ''SCRTD'') was a public transportation agency established in 1964 to serve the Greater Los Angeles area. It was the successor to the original Los ...

acquired the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

Burbank Branch in 1992. When the line opened on October 26, 1992, service extended only as far as Pomona. It was incrementally extended to Claremont that December, Montclair the following February, then finally to San Bernardino in May 1993. Saturday service was added in 1997 and Sunday service in 1998 making it the first Metrolink line to offer weekend service. San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) completed an environmental impact report (EIR) in 2015 to extend Metrolink service southeast from the current eastern terminus in San Bernardino to Redlands. The extension follows the Redlands Subdivision and comprises two projects. The Downtown San Bernardino Passenger Rail Project extended Metrolink southeast one mile via

age to a new terminus at the San Bernardino Transit Center. The project's

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, turf-cutting, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such cer ...

was in February 2014; at that time, the extension was expected to be completed by mid-2016. , the completion date had been extended to 2017. Construction work on the extension continued through March and April 2017. Test trains began running on the tracks in April 2017. This phase of the project opened to the public on December 16, 2017.

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

is a rail extension to Redlands. By December 2015, SANBAG decided that this second phase of the project, from the San Bernardino Transit Center to Redlands, would no longer be a Metrolink extension, but rather an independent system. SANBAG planned to use diesel multiple units (DMUs) and have Omnitrans operate the system. However, San Bernardino Line express limited-stop trains would run on part of the extension, to a new station near the Downtown Redlands station. Construction was planned to begin in 2017, however groundbreaking took place in July 2019 with a 2022 opening. The selected route runs between the Downtown San Bernardino station and the University of Redlands with stops at Tippecanoe Avenue,

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

, and Downtown Redlands, adjacent to the Redlands Santa Fe Depot. Omnitrans was removed as the system's operator in 2019 amid mounting deficits, and Metrolink took over construction and procurement. Arrow opened on October 24, 2022. Arrow's DMU sets have been studied for wider deployment on the rest of the San Bernardino Line. The rolling stock is the new EMD F125, and others were MPI MPXpress,

EMD F59PH The EMD F59PH is a four-axle AAR wheel arrangement#B-B, B-B Diesel-electric transmission, diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Diesel, Electro-Motive Division from 1988 to 1994. A variant, the F59PHI, was produced f ...

, and some cab cars.

Future development

The

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), branded as Metro, is the county agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the Transportation in Los Angeles, public transportation system in Los Ang ...

(LA Metro) has plans to add the current LA General Medical Center station on the El Monte Busway as an

infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train ser ...

to the line. This would involve building a second track and center platform. The cost of this project is estimated between $51 million and $110 million. Currently, westbound Metrolink passengers must exit at the Cal State LA station and take any of the westbound buses one stop to the Medical Center.

Stations

The San Bernardino Line has 15 full-time stations. They are, from west to east:

Notes

References

External links

San Bernardino Line schedule

San Bernardino extension page
on the San Bernardino Associated Governments website {{San Bernardino Metrolink (California) lines Public transportation in Los Angeles County, California Public transportation in San Bernardino County, California Transportation in San Bernardino, California Baldwin Park, California Claremont, California Covina, California Eastside Los Angeles Fontana, California Montclair, California Pomona, California Pomona Valley Rancho Cucamonga, California Rialto, California Redlands, California Upland, California Railway lines opened in 1992 1992 establishments in California 2017 in rail transport 2022 in rail transport Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Railway lines in highway medians Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway lines