I was browsing through pictures on railpictures.net and came across some recent shots at Spadra near cal poly pomona, and the caption read that the track was to be “removed” in the “near future”.
does this mean abandoned? or just replaced with new track?
I think it means new track. They can probably answer it better over at http://socalrailfan.com there is a section for the UP Alhambra Line.
I find it hard to beleive they can abandon it, its too vital for the traffic volumn coming thru there…ever notice the trains are only going one way, west bound? thats because the original UP ROW on the south side of the valley is east bound only trains.
It is possible that the the RR could be planning to seperate the grade crossings there, Temple is a very bad crossing, I’m surprise there isnt a car-train smash up there every week. I went to CP Pomona for college and I remember how fast the trains came thru there and how many people would stop on the tracks waiting for the signal to change.
The planned ACE, Alameda Corridor East, will take the old SP row rails thru the cities of Alhambra, San Gabriel and Temple City into a trench below the roadways, good for traffic, bad for railfans. But this is only for now planned as far out to Baldwinn Park.
i did some research and verified that the line is going to be rerouted to clear up grade crossing headaches at temple and pomona ave.
It will be part of the Alameda Corridor East project, which will involve bringing the former SP line parallel the original UP line for a couple of miles. i lost the link that one of the Railpictures.net photographers gave me.
Interesting! It would be a good idea traffic wise, kinda bad for railfans. Do you hear how they are going to connect the 2 lines?, Over on the Pomona side it would be easy to route everything down the UP ROW since the trackage is right next to each other, but thru City of Industry and Azusa, theres alot of industry built up between the two sides of the valley there and I cant see how they would route the eastbound line from Valley Blvd across the plain to the UP ROW.
on the west side, they’ll meet around the grand ave overpass, and meet continue together just east of the 57 freeway i believe. something to that nature.