San Bernardino Line
As of September 2023, 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) began.
Route
The line is owned by Metrolink. After leaving Union Station and crossing the Los Angeles River, 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'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-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 near Covina, between Pomona and Montclair, west of Fontana, and throughout San Bernardino.
History
Los Angeles County Transportation Commission acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad 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 9-mile (14 km) Redlands Subdivision and comprises two projects.
The Downtown San Bernardino Passenger Rail Project extended Metrolink southeast one mile via double trackage to a new terminus at the San Bernardino Transit Center. The project's groundbreaking was in February 2014; at that time, the extension was expected to be completed by mid-2016. As of September 2015, 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 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, 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, and some cab cars.
Future development
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) has plans to add the current LA General Medical Center station on the El Monte Busway as an infill station 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 17 stations. Express trains only serve seven of the busiest stations on the line. They are, from west to east:
