Checking up on the Gold Line Extension again
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Today’s bike club ride is the latest installment checking up on the progress of the Metro Gold Line extension out to Azusa. We’ve been going out to see this about every few months for the last two years, and it’s nearly finished. The last time we did this tour was in January, and there’s been a lot of progress since then.
Starting out, we rode Colorado across Arcadia to get the the nearly-finished Arcadia station. In fact, it looks finished. The monitors were all turned on, and it looked like it was ready for a train to pull in at any time. And of course the art for the station includes a peacock.
The Monrovia station looks nearly finished, but it is still fenced off, and there are still a lot of paving stones to be placed. The parking structure next to it looks done, though. We also stopped off to have a look at the operations center. Carla and I went there for the dedication and open house that Metro held back in May.
Continuing east, we stopped at the Duarte station. It also looks like it’s ready for a train to pull in. In fact, I did see a train there a few weeks ago when I rode out there for the dedication of the station.
Heading up the San Gabriel River bike trail, we turned off at the Azusa Rockery. We took a few minutes to look at the signs, and we finally found out just what it is that they’re mining there. Then we continued on to the Azusa downtown station. That was where Metro held the ‘Golden Spike‘ ceremony last year. It’s also where Carla and I saw how they weld the rails together with thermite. And while we were there, we met Oreo. She has a piece of cardboard to stand on, and she’s happy to ride around in the bike basket.
At the end of the line, we saw the Azusa APU/Citrus College station. That one looks the least finished of all the new stations. The station itself looks pretty finished, but the access to it is not done yet. It looks like there is going to be a street going through the underpass under the tracks, and that will be the access to the station, but it’s still a bit unclear if that will be a real street, or just a walkway of some sort.
We turned south in Glendora, and we headed back on Gladstone St. We took a side trip to see the Irwindale station. It looks pretty much done. It’s a far cry from how it looked the first time we did this tour.
Coming back, we rode to Monrovia and Merengue. Leaving there, we took the alley, where we saw the airplane mural on the wall of a building there. I guess there was some sort of vent built into the wall, and someone decided to put a propeller on it and then paint an airplane on the wall around it. It was a good little bit of street art.
39 miles
