Metro's El Monte Station recently underwent a big makeover that wrapped up about three years ago, and now it has a wealth of bus bays that are used by Foothill Transit, Metro, and Greyhound buses. But only now is anybody starting to think about hooking up the refurbished bus center with the El Monte Metrolink train station a mile away, reports the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Interestingly enough, it's Metro that's thinking about connecting the transit center with the commuter train; Metrolink "[doesn't] have a strong feeling either way," a rep told the Tribune.
Though the train station and the bus center are separated by just about a mile, their physical separation has led to "poor connectivity between two complimentary transit services," a Metro report said. Metro's Board of Directors voted last week to report back in December on how exactly the train station could be moved to connect with the transit center and approximately how much it would cost to do so. If a relocation were to happen, it would involve some serious multi-agency tangoing: the city of El Monte, Metro, and Metrolink would all have to work together, plus the LA County Flood Control District (because they oversee the land along the bike path) and the LA County Department of Public Works.
All that bureaucracy sounds like a potential nightmare, but hooking up the train station with bus service all in one location would give users more options, says El Monte's mayor. "So, looking at the possibility of moving that Metrolink station, we will have more people using rail or the bus to get around Southern California," she explains. The bus station is already linked with the Rio Hondo bike path and it has indoor bike storage too, but no train service of any kind.
· Metro studies relocating El Monte Metrolink Station to nearby bus station [SGVT]
· Redone El Monte Bus Station Opens October 14 [Curbed LA]