Cal State L.A.
El Monte was one of the 2 intermediate stops on the San Bernardino Line that only ran between Union Station and Pomona on Metrolink’s opening day on October 26, 1992. The El Monte Train station is at a different location, one mile east of the El Monte Bus Station. Metrolink follows this busway (in the middle of I-10, the San Bernardino Freeway) for its entire length from Union Station but trains continues a mile east and just before reaching this station join the Union Pacific Sunset Line that is used by the Sunset Limited to leave Union Station. Amtrak Sunset Limited trains skip El Monte, although there no switches before the station so trains couldn’t stop if they wanted too, unless they used the ex-Pacific Electric Red Car line used by Metrolink, before heading to downtown Pomona (shared with Metrolink’s Riverside Line). For a long time, your webmaster assumed the Sunset Limited shared tracks with the Riverside Line between Union Station and Pomona and was very surprised to make out the island platform and signage of the El Monte Station leaving Los Angeles from his darkened roomette.
The station has two tracks with an island platform along a short stretch of double track for the largely single tracked San Bernardino Line. This island platform begins just west (maybe 20 feet) of the grade-crossing of Tyler Avenue and runs west. Access to the island platform is via two pedestrian crossings over the southern Metrolink track, one crossing is at the eastern-most end of the platform, the second is in the middle of the platform. Along the platform are four small canopy structures each of these has a red roof with metal cutouts with the outlines of lions doing tricks. These are part of El Monte’s Wild Past by Victor Henderson and Elizabeth Garrison. The artwork honors Gay’s Lion Farm formerly in El Monte, with lions loaned to Hollywood throughout the 1920s.
The platform is alongside a 238 space free parking lot. This parking lot starts at leads back to Railroad Avenue. Across railroad Avenue on Center Street (that ends at the parking lot) is the main transit hub for the El Monte Trolley (now called El Monte Transit) system. This half-circle transit center with walkways covered by Spanish roofs, can hold up 5 buses that all pulse every 50 minutes, and fenced off when no bus service is operating on Sundays. El Monte Transit (formerly El Monte Trolley) costs 50 cents a ride, no free transfers to and from Metrolink.
Photos 1-35 taken on January 19, 2014
