In an effort to add ridership and get cars off the road, Metrolink trains may soon stop at two new stations in Los Angeles County — one at the Los Angeles General Medical Center in Boyle Heights and the other in Pico Rivera.
The stations are under study by LA Metro, the county transit agency that helps fund Metrolink, a heavy-rail passenger service that operates seven lines and 65 stations in Southern California.
LA Metro’s board voted on Thursday, June 22 to add $10 million to Metrolink’s regional rail program, which is exploring adding the stations.
The added stop at the L.A. County hospital campus would come off the San Bernardino Line, which has stops in Montclair, Pomona, Covina, Baldwin Park, El Monte, Cal State Los Angeles and downtown L.A.’s Union Station.
A station in Pico Rivera would be served by two Metrolink train lines, the 91/Perris Valley line and the Orange County line. The station would be located between the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Station and the Commerce Station, said Scott Johnson, Metrolink spokesman. The 91/Perris Valley line and the San Bernardino line are the two busiest in the Metrolink system.
A $500,000 feasibility study looking at the L.A. County hospital stop was completed in 2022. The study concluded that adding a station would benefit more than 9,600 essential hospital workers and visitors.
The study also found that having a direct stop at the hospital campus would help decrease traffic on streets in Boyle Heights and provide a carless transit service to support new additions planned for what was once called the LAC+USC Medical Center. Plans include additional housing and a Restorative Care Village that provides residential treatment for mental health care, substance use disorders and other services. A first phase costing $68.5 million was completed in July 2022.
“We are rebranding and reimagining what we are doing there,” said Supervisor and LA Metro board member Hilda Solis, whose motion for a study of a Metrolink stop there was approved in 2021. “We have added restorative care and more housing there.
“The best way to get there — without having to drive and park — is to take Metrolink,” she said. “Metrolink (San Bernadino Line) helps connect people as far away as San Bernardino and Pomona, many who work at the General Hospital.”
In a survey taken by 1,500 employees at the regional hospital, 55% said they would use the train with the direct stop. Some employees take the line to Union Station, then take a county bus to the county hospital, Solis said.
“We do see professionals such as nurses, doctors and medical technicians who use the line. But this would cut down on the time of their commute,” she said.
Others who visit the hospital campus or come for a doctor’s appointment often have to take three or four buses to get there and it can take them three to four hours, Solis said.
Metro is moving ahead with preparing environmental documents that could pave the way for the new station to be built, according to Jay Fuhrman, Metro’s regional transportation planner and Deputy Executive Officer of Regional Rail Brian Balderrama.
Planning for the Pico Rivera station is not as far along.
Metro will hire a consultant to start the feasibility study this fall, wrote Fuhrman and Balderrama in an email. The study will begin in the fall. Completion of the study is expected in the fall of 2024, they reported.
This follows a Metro board motion approved in February 2023 from Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian and Whittier City Council member Fernando Dutra to authorize the feasibility study.
The station would integrate with plans for a future A Line (formerly Gold Line) Eastside Extension, as well as a new bus rapid transit line — plus bike paths for active transportation, Fuhrman and Balderrama wrote. The cost ranges from $20 million to $200 million, according to a city report.
Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona said the addition of a Metrolink station is part of an overall city transportation and sustainability plan.
“One, it is for economic development. Two, it is to create an environment to take residents out of their cars,” Carmona said on Tuesday, June 27.