Crucial track inspection and preventative repairs have been occurring on the Pasadena Gold Line for over a month now. For those of you wondering what has been done, and how much longer service will be impacted, here’s a breakdown of how Metro is approaching the work, and the status of repairs.

When inspecting the Gold Line’s overhead power supply system last month, surveyors split the line into six sections. They observed that five of these six sections had elements in need of preventative repairs, such as frayed wires and other worn or stressed components. Over the past month, crews have completed repairs in two of the five segments, specifically, between Southwest Museum and Highland Park, and Lincoln/Cypress and Southwest Museum stations. Work remains to be done between Union Station and Chinatown, South Pasadena and Del Mar, and Allen and Sierra Madre Villa.

At least another month will be required to cross all elements noted as “weak” off the list, perhaps longer. While this is inconvenient for many, if we do not prioritize this work and a stressed component fails, the impact on Gold Line service and customers would be much greater. So we’d like to say again to all Gold Line riders: thank you for your understanding as we try to tackle this as quickly as possible.

As for service alerts, there are a few to be aware of this weekend and next week, July 12 through 19.

This weekend, Bus shuttles will replace rail service between Sierra Madre Villa and Lake stations beginning Friday, July 10 at 9 p.m. through Sunday, July 12 close of service. During this time, trains between East L.A. and Lake Station will run every 10 minutes, except during the early morning and late-night, when they will operate every 20 minutes. Bus shuttles will serve Lake, Allen and Sierra Madre stations every 10 minutes.

You might guess the closure is related to the aforementioned Pasadena Gold Line repairs, but in fact, crews will be working to configure train control and signal systems to tie in the existing Gold Line with the Foothill Extension.

Finally, next Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., customers should expect minor delays between Sierra Madre Villa and Lake, as trains share 1 track around repair crews at Allen Station.

Concluding our weekly Gold Line look-ahead, here are a few photos fresh from the Gold Line Foothill Extension project: