Until this week, eastbound Metrolink riders from Los Angeles Union Station had the option of leaving at 7:38, 8:38 or 9:38 p.m. on weeknights. Now they have only the 7:38 and 8:38 departures because the 9:38 train has been parked.
That’s among the notable changes in the new schedules that took effect Monday for the six-county Metrolink system. They are largely positive, but not entirely. As a rider of long standing, I took a look from the Inland Empire perspective.
The San Bernardino Line, the system’s busiest, ends at Union Station, with stops at Cal State L.A., El Monte, Baldwin Park, Covina, Pomona, Claremont, Montclair, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Rialto and San Bernardino, with Arrow Line service continuing to Redlands.
(As testament to my years of Metrolink patronage, that route was typed from memory. I could have a second career calling out the stops.)
Metrolink, like other transit agencies around the country, took a hit during the pandemic when many riders no longer commuted to an office. With its schedule update, the system is again boosting service.
Systemwide, Metrolink has added 32 trains a week, a 23% increase. “That’s a huge increase in service levels,” Metrolink spokesperson Meredith Yeoman points out.
When service has increased might be counterintuitive. All the new trains are on weekdays, when service is running about 60% of 2019 levels.
“Where it’s still lagging, pretty significantly, is on those weekday trains,” Yeoman tells me.
So why boost service on weekdays? It’s not primarily to benefit commuters. Many of the new trains are at midday. According to Metrolink, eliminating long gaps between trains, rather than focusing on rush hour, will make the train a more realistic option for college students, tourists visiting Southern California and daytrippers.
“We know there is potential there,” Yeoman says. “There’s been a shift away from just serving those peak-time commuter riders and trying to make the service more convenient for people who are not commuters.”
True, but some commuters are saying the service is now less convenient for them.
Meanwhile, weekend service, which at $10 roundtrip is perhaps the best bargain in the system, was a bright spot during the pandemic and its aftermath. “We are still seeing growth on weekends,” Yeoman says. Last Saturday saw almost 8,000 riders, up 2% from 2019.
That might beg the question of why the weekend schedule on the San Bernardino Line is unchanged, with eight trains in each direction both Saturday and Sunday. There are two gaps of three hours each between departures. And the last trains home are at 7:38 and 9:38 p.m. (There was once an 11:30 p.m. train on Saturday.)
Post-pandemic, boosting service is “a phased process,” with capturing more weekday riders the immediate priority, Yeoman explains. “The next steps,” she says, “would be providing more service on weekends and experimenting with more evening trains.”
Adjustments to the IE’s five lines — Riverside Line, Inland Empire/Orange County, 91/Perris Valley, San Bernardino and Arrow — are too complex to get into here for a general audience.
Although it’s worth noting that Perris is getting a boost: The last weekday train home used to go only to downtown Riverside. Now it runs the full distance to Perris.
And losing the last weeknight train on the San Bernardino Line is a sticking point. Low passenger numbers are to blame.
“It was lower than many other time slots. We’re listening to feedback. We’ve had people reach out to us about that train,” Yeoman says. “It’s possible moving forward we would restore it.”
That cut was criticized by, among others, two San Gabriel Valley transit advocates, who naturally want more service.
On X, formerly Twitter, Erik Griswold wrote: “When you cut back the last train on your busiest line to 8:38 p.m., you aren’t improving service.”
Hank Fung similarly wrote: “I would have spent the resources for consistently hourly SB Line service until 10 p.m. instead. The last train from San Bernardino leaves way too early.”
By the way, in 1924, 100 years ago, the Pacific Electric Line had 10 eastbound trains a day, with the last train for Redlands leaving L.A. at — polite cough — 10 p.m., almost 90 minutes later than today.
Ah, history. Here in 2024, the shortage of evening trains does limit what some of us might do.
On Sunday, I met two friends in Little Tokyo at the Far Bar for dinner and the Dodger game. (I will let the Baseball Gods determine if the team’s 10-5 victory got any sort of spiritual boost from my watching the game a few miles from Dodger Stadium.)
We met at 4:30 p.m. and, the choice of trains home on a Sunday being limited, I opted for the 7:38 rather than the 9:38. I didn’t need two more hours out, especially on a school night, but would have gladly stayed one more hour.
As for the World Series, if you want to take Metrolink to watch in person, especially on a weekday, you might be out of luck. No special late trains are planned.
The first game, on Friday, starts at 5:08 p.m. Sunday’s game began at the same time and ended about 8:23 p.m.
How many IE fans are going to abandon a high-stakes game around the seventh inning to head back by bus to Union Station for a train that pulls out promptly at 8:38?
brIEfly
The aftermath of former President Trump’s Coachella rally Oct. 12 got an oblique mention on “Saturday Night Live” in a parody of Fox News’ interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. As Harris, Maya Rudolph told Alec Baldwin’s Baier: “This election is about contrasts. At my rallies, there’s Beyoncé, and joy, and bathrooms. At his rallies, he won’t pay for the buses. And hundreds of elderly people gotta walk back to their cars six miles through the desert, like an Old Testament Fyre Festival.” This will hold those of us in the IE until “Lisa from Temecula” returns.
David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, three cold openings. Email [email protected], phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.
