Covina
Pomona (North on timetables only to differentiate from the stop on the Riverside Line) has always seen passenger train since the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad passenger tracks first were laid through North Pomona and the first train arrived in Los Angeles on May 31, 1887. This railroad was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and was fully incorporated into the Santa Fe in 1906. On December 1, 1910 the Red Cars of the Pacific Electric Railroad arrived on a line that ran from Los Angeles to San Bernardino (and in-fact reached as far as Redlands until 1936), on tracks just south of the Santa Fe Line. This was one of the first Red Car lines to be abandoned with regular passenger service ending November 1, 1941. The tracks themselves weren’t abandoned and remained as a profitable freight line.
Service on the Santa Fe railroad continued on the route of the famed Super Chief, with Amtrak starting to serve the station when it took over operations of the Super Chief/El Capitan in 1971. Amtrak trains stopped in Pomona on the later named Southwest Limited and Southwest Chief until January 1994 when trains were rerouted via Fullerton, when the line was abandoned for conversion into electrified light rail. The Desert Wind also served the station from the start of its existence on October 28, 1970 until May 1st 1986 when it was rerouted via Fullerton (and fully discontinued in 1997). From the creation of Amtrak until 1994 Amtrak stopped at two different stations in Pomona; here and at the Southern Pacific Station, 2.5 miles south in Downtown Pomona that is still a stop on the Sunset Limited. Timetables listed this stop as Pomona CA – (N. Gary Ave).
On October 26, 1992, Pomona entered a new era when it became the terminus of one of three inaugural Metrolink Commuter Rail branches with trains running via the former Pacific Electric line into Los Angeles-Union Station with two intermediate stops in Covina and El Monte. Pomona was only the terminus of service on the San Bernardino Line for about five weeks with service extended to Claremont on December 7, 1992 and all the way to San Bernardino on May 17, 1993. There is some irony of heavy rail, diesel Metrolink passenger trains now running on a former interurban electric line, and electric light rail trains on the former Santa Fe main transcontinental line. Electric light rail service scheduled to be restored to Pomona with a stop by the Metrolink station in 2026 as part of phase 2B of the Gold Line Foothill extension; and will run alongside Metrolink service eastwards from this station to Claremont and Montclair.
The former Santa Fe Passenger station is still standing and is by Metrolink as a maintenance office. It is located along the south side of the former Santa Fe tracks (two in this area plus an industrial spur) and is just north of the two Metrolink tracks, along the west side of Garey Avenue. The station is a tan building with Pomona etched on the former platform side and Santa Fe on the narrow non-public driveway that separates the building from the Metrolink tracks. A Santa Fe logo has been left on the building. Heading west from the building is a fenced off parking lot full of maintenance of way vehicles. These lead to a fence and the start of Metrolink’s long and narrow passenger parking lot with 330 total spaces. This parking lot stretches about a third of a mile all the way to the next major street grade-crossing with Fulton Road.
The Metrolink station has an island platform for the two-track line. This platform has three green canopy structures that cover benches for waiting passengers. Entrances to the island platforms are via short ramps down to grade-crossings at each end. The western end is a pedestrian only grade-crossing across the north track up to the parking lot, about 300 feet east of Fulton Road. The eastern end leads to a driveway/grade-crossing entrance to the station’s parking lot, this entrance is on Santa Fe Street just east of where all traffic must curve south onto Supply Street in an industrial area. Vending machines are located beneath two seperate smaller canopies in the parking lot by the track entrances. The former Santa Fe Station is about 1,200 feet east of the Metrolink platform.
All Photos taken on February 26, 2012
