Monrovia station is an at-grade light rail station on the A Line of the

Los Angeles Metro Rail The Los Angeles Metro Rail is an urban rail transit system serving Los Angeles County, California, United States. It consists of seven lines, including five light rail lines (the A Line (Los Angeles Metro), A, C Line (Los Angeles Metro), C, E Li ...

system. It is located at the intersection of Duarte Road and Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia, California, after which the station is named. This station opened on March 5, 2016, as part of Phase 2A of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Project.

History

The

Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad was a railroad founded on Sept. 5, 1883, by James F. Crank with the goal of bringing a rail line to Pasadena from downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad was sold and cons ...

built the first train tracks and station in Monrovia in 1887. The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad was founded in 1883, by

James F. Crank Crank House, also known as Fair Oaks Ranch, is an 1882 Victorian style residence in Altadena, Los Angeles County, California. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 for its association with the early settlement ...

with the goal of bringing a rail line to

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...

from downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad was sold on May 20, 1887 into the

California Central Railway The California Central Railway was incorporated on April 23, 1887, with headquarters in San Bernardino, California. George O. Manchester was the President of the corporation. At its peak it operated of rail line with 14 steam locomotives, 14 ...

. In 1889 this was consolidated into

Southern California Railway Southern California Railway was formed on November 7, 1889. it was formed by consolidation of California Southern Railroad Company, the California Central Railway Company, and the Redondo Beach Railway Company. A second consolidation and reformi ...

Company. On January 17, 1906 Southern California Railway was sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and designated the

Pasadena Subdivision The Pasadena Subdivision is the remnant branch line of the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) Los Angeles Second District. The line currently branches off of Metrolink’s San Bernardino Line at CP Cambridge in Claremont. The li ...

. Installed in 1887, a

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

-drawn railway with a single passenger car, called the Myrtle Avenue Railroad at that time ran from the Monrovia station up Myrtle Ave to downtown Monrovia. On the way back down to the rail station, the mule was loaded onto a flatcar and downhill gravity took the cars back to the station. By the early 1920s the partially mule-powered streetcar system was removed. In 1906 the first

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

rail car arrived in Monrovia. The PE Pasadena and Monrovia line ended in 1951. Santa Fe Middle School near the station is named after the Santa Fe Railway. The current railway station reuses the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway depot which was built in 1926. It is designed in a Spanish colonial revival style. The 1926 station replaced a wooden depot built on the site in 1886 by the original

. Santa Fe and later Amtrak ran the ''

Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and Southwest via Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff ...

'' and '' Desert Wind'' over this line in Monrovia, but rerouted passenger trains to the Fullerton Line in 1986. The Santa Fe line served the San Gabriel Valley until 1994, when the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

weakened the bridge in Arcadia. With the completion of the Gold Line in Monrovia, the 1926-era Monrovia train station is slated to be restored. The Santa Fe Depot was used in a number of Hollywood movies through the years. It is used two times in the 1966 movie '' The Trouble with Angels'', both at the start and the ending in which the girls leave St. Francis Academy.

Vehicle maintenance facility

As part of the light rail extension, the Gold Line Authority and Metro built a new Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Facility in Monrovia, east of Monrovia station. The facility services, cleans and stores light rail vehicles for Metro's fleet, with a total storage capacity of 104 vehicles. The facility, known as Metro Division 24 Yard, is located just north of the right of way between California Avenue and Shamrock Avenue. It cost $53 million to build.

Service

Station layout

Hours and frequency

Connections

, the following connections are available: * Foothill Transit:

Neighborhood and destinations

The city of Monrovia created a transit-oriented district around the station. The district, known as the ''Station Square Transit Village Mixed Use District'', has mixed retail, residential and office uses, with pedestrian amenities and connections. Construction of phase one of the new district started in 2017. Between the station and the I-210 Foothill Freeway is the Station Square Transit Center, with a park and parking lot, also new apartment buildings. Plans are to restore/renovate the historic 1926 Monrovia Santa Fe train station depot at the location, though the actual use of the station is not yet determined .

References

External links

Foothill Extension Construction AuthorityMetro Project Page, Foothill ExtensionI Will Ride – Blog of Foothill Extension supporters
{{Los Angeles Metro Rail stations navbox A Line (Los Angeles Metro) stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1926 Railway stations closed in 1972 Railway stations in the United States opened in 2016 Former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway stations Monrovia, California 1926 establishments in California 1972 disestablishments in California 2016 establishments in California