30,000 board Gold Line Foothill trains on opening day

On opening day, nearly 30,000u2009people jammed into six new Gold Line stations Saturday — many waiting in line for as long as 40u2009minutes — to ride the train from east Pasadena to Citrus College in Glendora.

“The trains are packed,” said Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the Losu2009Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which debuted the 11.5-mile foothill extension under construction since Juneu20092010. For the first time, the $1u2009billion light-rail project carried passengers to and from the Sierra Madre Villa Station through Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale and Azusa.

Metro anticipated between 20,000 to 30,000u2009people would board trains on the extension through midnight Saturday. During the peak, the rate reached 3,500u2009people per hour, Sotero said. Metro predicts 13,600u2009boardings on regular weekdays.

Hundreds of spectators applauded as the noon train glided into the Downtown Azusa Station on Alameda Avenue south of Ninth Street. Families filled the plaza, eating finger foods as kids had their faces painted.

A mariachi band welcomed Metro board member and Losu2009Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, along with Azusa Mayor Joseph Rocha and Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority board Chairman Doug Tessitor.

At the Arcadia Station, a trumpeter sounded the call for the races at nearby Santa Anita Park, signaling a new lifeline for the racetrack suffering from dwindling attendance.

That coection wasn’t lost on Gloria Tiaga, Azusa resident.

“I’m going to the races,” she said. “They even have a shuttle.”

Lines at the Monrovia station stretched for blocks as people waited to board any train. Some indulged in food truck fare in what Monrovia calls its Station Square off Myrtle Avenue at Duarte Road. In general, passengers stayed on board, not wishing to disembark, but instead gazing at the Sanu2009Gabriel Mountains or chatting with other passengers.

For some, train travel was a novelty, a curiosity. Instead of sitting isolated in private cars, they were thrust into a public moving space with strangers.

“All around, I saw people looking at people,” said Monrovia historian Ralph Walker. “People they’d never seen before. And they weren’t sitting there texting.”

In Irwindale, Mayor Mark Breceda and others on the train from the Irwindale Chamber of Commerce gave a whoop! as the new, PS3010 light-rail train built by Kinkisharyo Inteational signaled its stop to cheering throngs.

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Just before, Breceda welcomed the crowd of 300u2009people at the opening ceremony from Jardin de Roca, or Irwindale: Garden of Rocks, and later, on the train, pointed to the bottom of the dry Sanu2009Gabriel River as the light-rail arched across its expanse and said: “See any rocks down there?”

Don Boss, Kinkisharyo vice president, called the 21u2009new train cars made specifically for the Gold Line foothill extension “the most highly technical train we’ve manufactured. The quality of this train is like no other.” Many said the ride seemed smoother than the older trains on the East L.A.-to-Pasadena segment.

Rides were free all day and night Saturday on the Gold Line. Begiing today, rides will cost $1.75.

“For us in Azusa, ‘Oh, the places we will go,’” Rocha said, calling the train from downtown Azusa “the family train.”

For cousins David Oros, 19 and Ivan Flores, 21, both of Azusa, the train equaled freedom. They inched forward in the line toting their bikes, anticipating an inaugural train/bike exploration of Losu2009Angeles.

“It’s pretty cool to ride opening day. Today, we want to go explore L.A. It is better to ride on a bike than in a car; you get to explore more stuff,” said Flores.

Where are some of the places they’ll go?

For Oros, that would be to church. His church in downtown, near L.A Live, is a few blocks from the Expo Line. From Azusa, he’d take the Gold Line to Union Station, change to the Red or Purple lines, catch the Expo Line at Seventh and Metro Station.

Pasadena City College mechanical engineering student Erick Avila, 19, gawked at the new Kinkisharyo train before it swooshed out of the Duarte/City of Hope Station.

“When I see this, I think it is a new era of train service in Los Angeles,” Avila said, adding: “I will ride the train. It is a whole lot better than driving the 210u2009Freeway.”

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