On Weekends, Claremont's A Line Station Is in La Verne

If the Metro A Line has run all the way to Pomona since September 2025, why is getting on it from Claremont Village still a planning exercise?

The extension opened to passengers on September 19, 2025. It added stops in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona, but Claremont is still listed as a future-phase station. On a weekday, the gap barely matters, because a Metrolink train covers the distance to Pomona in about six minutes. On a Saturday it matters a lot. On weekends, the easiest way from Claremont onto the A Line is to skip the train at the Claremont Depot and go to La Verne/Fairplex instead.

The Village station is still a 2030s project

The Claremont stop is funded and in design, but nothing is under construction. The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority's Fall 2026 newsletter says the Pomona to Claremont extension is in final design and pre-construction. Major construction is expected to begin in late 2027 and take about four years for the 2.3-mile segment. The newsletter does not give an opening date for passenger service. In April 2026, the Daily Bulletin reported that construction might start in 2028 with service opening in 2032. The schedule is somewhere between those two estimates, and it is still years away.

When it is built, the station will sit east of Indian Hill Boulevard and west of College Avenue, roughly where the Metrolink platform is today. The Metrolink station itself will move several hundred feet east of College Avenue. The two systems will share a 539-space parking facility, with EV charging, bike parking and a bus drop-off area. Light rail and Metrolink trains will run on separate tracks and platforms in the same corridor. The Construction Authority estimates the eventual ride at 38 minutes to Pasadena and 67 minutes to downtown Los Angeles. The City of Claremont's station page still shows older figures of 36 and 65 minutes. Artist Joyce Kohl has been named to create the station's public art, according to The Student Life.

So for the next several years, the Village needs a connection to someone else's A Line station.

A six-minute hop with very different schedules

The official transfer point is Pomona-North, one Metrolink stop west on the San Bernardino Line. Metrolink says any valid ticket includes a free transfer to the A Line, so you don't buy a separate Metro fare. The A Line platform is just north of Metrolink's. A Line trains run daily from about 4 a.m. to midnight, every eight minutes at peak.

How often you can make that hop depends on the day. Under the Metrolink timetable effective May 4, 2026, 16 trains run each way between Claremont and Pomona-North on weekdays, with a scheduled ride of six minutes. On Saturdays and Sundays the count drops to eight each way. The ride is still five or six minutes, but departures come unevenly, generally two to three hours apart. If you miss a weekend train at the Claremont Depot, the trip to the A Line can take far longer than the train ride you were connecting to.

The price also changed a week ago. On October 5, 2026, Metrolink raised fares for the first time in 13 years. One-way tickets went up by roughly 14%, with the exact change depending on distance. The weekday SoCal Day Pass rose from $15 to $19, and the weekend and holiday pass from $10 to $12. Fare tables and blog posts written before this month show the old numbers.

Three ways onto the A Line from the Village, compared

The bus and parking rows are what make La Verne/Fairplex the better weekend start. Foothill Transit Line 197 runs through Claremont Village and past Pomona College, and Metro says the line recently added a stop at La Verne/Fairplex. An hourly bus isn't fast, but it comes about twice as often as the weekend train. Its posted weekday schedule varies, with half-hour intervals in parts of the morning and afternoon and roughly hourly gaps through much of midday.

Driving is simpler still. Metro's parking page lists $3 daily parking at both La Verne/Fairplex, which has 262 spaces at 2327 Arrow Highway, and Pomona-North, which has 530. It also says the rate doesn't apply on weekends or federal holidays. Metrolink's own Pomona-North page lists parking at $3 per 24 hours without a weekend exception. Check the signs at the lot before you rely on either. For comparison, the Claremont Metrolink station has 396 free spaces, but only for Metrolink riders.

La Verne/Fairplex also has spare room. In February 2026 it averaged 287 daily boardings, the fewest of the four new stations, while Pomona-North averaged 1,826, according to Metro figures reported by the Daily Bulletin. A quiet platform 262 spaces deep is an easy place to start a Saturday trip.

Once you're on the train, the Construction Authority estimates 34 minutes from Pomona to Sierra Madre Villa and 64 minutes to Union Station. Metro's opening guide put Pomona-North to Old Pasadena at about 40 minutes.

A fall calendar sorted by the station you get off at

Several of this season's biggest local events don't need a transfer at all, because they're at Fairplex, next to the La Verne/Fairplex station.

La Verne/Fairplex

• Fairplex Presents Oktoberfest, running through October 17
• The Gothic Market in Expo Hall 4, October 17 to 18
• Cali Cup in Expo Hall 9, November 6 to 8
• In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, November 12 to 15

Memorial Park, Pasadena

• "The Art of Analog" at the Norton Simon Museum, Saturday, October 17, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• "Where History Meets the Road: Celebrating Route 66 & Colorado Boulevard" at the Pasadena Museum of History, 470 W. Walnut St., through January 24, 2027
• USC Pacific Asia Museum Free 2nd Sunday, November 8
• CicLAvia Pasadena, Sunday, November 15. The City of Pasadena says the car-free Colorado Boulevard route connects to this station.

Lake, Pasadena

• Passing Strange at the Pasadena Playhouse, November 4 to 29
• An Evening with David Sedaris at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, November 10

Del Mar, Pasadena

• Jackalope Art Festival at Central Park, 275 S. Raymond Ave., November 14 to 15
• Old Pasadena Holiday Shopping & Food Walking Tour, November 24 through January 9, 2027

Arcadia and Monrovia

• Santa Anita's autumn meet runs through November 1. The A Line stops in Arcadia, but the track isn't a direct walk from the station.
• The Monrovia Annual Holiday Parade heads north on Myrtle Avenue on Thursday, December 3, at 7 p.m. Old Town Monrovia's visitor guide suggests a short rideshare from the station.

The NHRA weekend is the biggest of these for parking. Even with free weekend parking at La Verne/Fairplex, a sold-out dragstrip next door could put pressure on 262 spaces. On that weekend, Line 197 or the Metrolink connection to Pomona-North may be worth the extra planning.

The New Year's Day trip without a published plan

The 138th Rose Parade starts at 8 a.m. on January 1, 2027. The Tournament of Roses lists Del Mar and Memorial Park stations as two blocks from the route and Lake as four blocks away. Metro's current Rose Bowl guidance doesn't include a 2027 parade service plan. For the 2026 parade, The Source reported all-night service on the A, B, D and E Lines, but that was last year's plan and can't be assumed for this year. For Rose Bowl events, Metro's current guidance is to ride to Memorial Park and use a Foothill Transit shuttle for select special events, after confirming with the organizer that a shuttle is running. January 1 is a federal holiday, so Metro's posted policy means no parking charge at La Verne/Fairplex. A pre-dawn trip from Claremont will still depend on whatever schedule Metro publishes in December.

You can't board the A Line in Claremont until the 2030s, so the station a Village household uses will often depend on the day of the week. Our team at Cornerstone Realty Group keeps track of changes like this along the Foothill corridor, from the Claremont station timeline to the parking rules at La Verne/Fairplex. If you'd like to know how the future station could affect your home's value, get in touch for a free home valuation and personalized plan.