The main reason for this trip is to attend a wedding of a cousin out in the Mountains just south of San Bernardino. my parents have gone out a day earlier, and my brother is arriving this morning. Being me I’ve figured out we can take Metrolink to San Bernardino to Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority (MARTA) that runs an off-mountain route four times a day from San Bernardino up to the wedding site.
First I have to pick my brother up from the airport, My family friend drops me off at the North Holleywood Red Line sation. I could have taken the bus but have overslept. I load a TAP day pass onto the TAP card I remembered my card with sheriff deputies overlooking and helping a few riders. I tap my card as required by TAP although only the Union Station turnstiles are locked as of yesterday. I head down to the platform and the Red Line leaves at 8:52.
- 9:15 – Operator at Westlake/MacArthur Park “I’ve been instructed to wait for two minutes”
- 9:18 – Arrive at 7th/Metro Center and walk upstairs. We all tap again on well positioned TAP readers to transfer (its tap once per vehicle). A blue line train is sitting on the Blue/Expo Line departure platform.
- 9:22 – “Welcome Aboard the Metro blue line, Please Stand clear the doors are closing” We leave. We have a cell phone screamer, I actually read.
- 9:48 – I’m engrossed in my book and think I see the green line above me. Then “Willowbrook, change for the Metro Green line” When did the station’s name change?
- 9:57 – my brothers flight is early, he calls me to say he’s gotten his bag, as I get on the green line to start a fast ride in the middle of a freeway. He says he’ll take the G Shuttle bus out to meet me.
- Two people get into an argument on the train over something nonsensical that a man discretely records on his phone in front of me over moving.
- 10:15 – arrive Avation.
My brother arrives on the next Shuttle bus, perfect timing. I spend $6 on a day pass for him on a new TAP card. Coming back were checked for taps on what look like cell phones as we leave the Green Line platform to head down the escalators to transfer to the blue line. We both get green goes
Me and my brother take the Blue Line to 7th/Metro Center and then transfer to a Hollywood-bound Red Line train. The goal is to get a walk inside Hollywood. We walk the Walk of Fame from Hollywood/Highland to Hollywood/Western. We get back on the Red Line dealing with some event outside the Metro Station. We get to Union Station and MegaBus has been added as an announced connection. The first time I’ve heard MegaBus announced as a connection. We have lunch at Philip’s.
Metrolink Leaves Union Station on track 7B at 2:20pm. We pull up to the end of the platform before stopping for a red signal at the station exit.
2:35 – Stop at Cal State LA with its Metrolink platform across from the bus platform and then enter the middle of the Freeway, beating traffic.
2:41 – Leave the freeway median and cross a river and go high above a river
2:43 – El Monte with a single platform.
We rise up again and go over more marshland as we continue into the Inland Empire.
2:50 – The backyards I associate with this line
2:53 – Baldwin Park
2:56 – Pass something that looks line a crater
2:59 – Covina, the stop still has banners for the no longer new express service. The street entrance to the station is named Metro Rail at the traffic light, not Metrolink. We go back to backyards.
3:11 – North Pamona
3:14 – A westbound passes
3:15 – Claremont with a nice old station
3:18 – Montclair
3:23 – Upland
We go back to the suburban houses
3:30 – Rancho Cucamonga with we will be Opening the doors shortly and back up. I guess we overshot the platform.
3:34 – Start passing a huge amount of industry. Then the car junkyard of the day.
3:36 – The speedway with its special Metrolink platforms
3:37 – a yard with a lone Metrolink engine and some junk yards around.
3:39 – Fontana. We go by industry.
3:45 – Rialto with a nice wooden depot. See two cars from a security company.
3:48 – Pass the Rancho West BNSF yard and rise above an intermodal trucking yard.
We slowly enter San Bernardino in view of a Santa Fe smokestack and a double stack train.
We arrive at 3:52, plenty of time before our 4:30 bus up to Lake Arrowhead.
The station is open now with a cafe. We wait inside there. I get some photos and we go outside at 4:20 to the MARTA sign. Our minibus pulls up at 4:30. I hand over our Metrolink tickets to save a dollar (that are collected, I assume for reimbursement) and pay the final $8 up into the mountains. Then we go to the back of the bus and pile our luggage in the ADA area. There six other passengers. Next is another stop by the main Metrolink entrance before turning around and getting on I-215.
4:49-We pull into the parking lot for the last stop in the valley. A man tries to get on with “Sorry you cant bring that on the bus, federal regulations, I could lose my job” Man: “But i just bought it” I’m thinking liquor as he leaves the bus and we leave we see he has a car battery he just purchased at the Auto Zone in the parking lot. We then start climbing into the mountains. My bag flies to the otherside of the bus. Luckily staying in the ADA area as we climb. All 9 sets of regular seats are taken by at least one person. The road is one of the most impressive that I’ve taken a transit bus on (albeit a cutaway van minibus). We make a few stops in another before pulling up to the Rimforest (at over 5,000 feet) where my parents are there to greet us!