Los Angeles
Cal State L.A. opened as a $1.5 million infill station on the San Bernardino Line on October 26, 1994. The Metrolink platform was built as an addition to the station of the same name on the El Monte Busway that opened in 1973.
This is the one stop on the portion of line where the San Bernardino line runs in the middle of the 10/San Bernardino Freeway between El Monte and just before Union Station. This entire stretch is shared with the El Monte Transitway/HOT lanes that are used by the LA Metro Silver Line and Foothill Transit’s Silver Streak buses (and additional Metro and Foothill Transit express bus routes). The busway has one additional intermediate station between El Monte and Union Station at LAC+USC Medical Center west of this station. The busway ends at the El Monte Bus station, where Metrolink also leaves its freeway median running, but the El Monte train station is approximately 1 mile east of here. The connection at Cal State Los Angeles to Metrolink is shown on the LA Metro Map; this station, Union Station, and the end of the Orange Line transitway at Chatsworth are the only stations with direct connections between Metro Rail & Busways and Metrolink.
From when the station opened in 1994 until the Burbank Airport North station opened in 2018, the stop was the only one on the Metrolink system without any parking, with a note specifically for the station on lots of Metrolink literature in the mid-2000s. Even today (2020), out of the 62 stations, only 2 stops have no parking, 9 have paid parking (including Union Station), leaving the other 50 with free parking. The station is located on the campus of Cal State L.A. and is designed to serve commuters to this large 30,000 student campus.
The station has a single railroad track for Metrolink trains with a side platform on the north side, along the north side of the 10/San Bernardino Freeway. The busway and train track continues on the northside of the San Bernardino Freeway and continues along the northside of the freeway all the way into Union Station. Just west of the station beyond the interchange with the 710/Long Beach Freeway the transitway/railroad track transitions to the middle of the freeway, allowing passengers to really ‘skip traffic’ in the middle of it. At the station, the railroad track is located in an open-cut, parallel to the guideway of the transitway used by Eastbound towards El Monte buses. Above the Metrolink station is the guideway for Westbound buses heading towards Los Angeles. The Metrolink platform itself is quite dark with a grassy embankment running at an angle behind it. There are a number of benches, but no canopy structures are needed because the Westbound busway is directly above the Metrolink platform.
To leave this platform, towards the western end is an elevator and staircase. These are in a wider area with concrete walls and covered with colorful murals. These lead up to a short walkway to a landing at the western end of the Westbound busway platform. From here a separate staircase and elevator for both Metrolink and busway passengers leads up to a landing on the main pedestrian bridge. This pedestrian bridge continues (with mesh walls) south over both busways and the railroad track to a staircase with four flights and an elevator that lead down to the Eastbound busway platform.
To actually leave the station the bridge continues north out to the side of the embankment to a small entrance area along Circle Drive. To the west is the station’s 3 bay bus loop with passengers needing to cross the bus loop to reach the bus stops. In the middle of the bus loop is a covered bicycle rack that has a Metrolink style
"Cal State L.A. Station" sign on the roof. Other information panels in the station entrance area are in Metro black with white text style and read "Cal State Los Angeles." Other differences in signs is that those on the Metrolink platform have L.A. with periods, the signs on the busway platform say Cal State LA without periods.
Photos 1-40 taken on January 19, 2014
