By Elijah Cabatic, September 29, 2026
Infrequent and sometimes delayed Metrolink service can make it an unreliable option for many Cal Poly Pomona students, while the station’s distance from campus makes it inconvenient for many students to access.
Metrolink serves Pomona with two stations: Pomona-Downtown on the Riverside Line, which is a 17-minute bus ride, and Pomona-North on the San Bernardino Line, which is a 40-minute bus ride, both though the Bronco shuttle service. However, according to the Metrolink timetable, only 5 trains run in each direction on weekdays.
Aryan Ray, an urban planning student who takes Metrolink two to three times a week to get to downtown Los Angeles, said Metrolink is a reliable service, though not perfect.
“I would say the train service is often delayed,” Ray said. “Not often canceled, but it does happen. I would say I would rely on it, even if frequencies and delays mean that it’s not always the best transportation option.”
Nicole Martin, a business student from West Covina, takes the Metrolink much less frequently, because although she lives near a station, it is on the infrequently served Riverside Line.
“That just doesn’t work for my type of schedule,” Martin said. “At this point, it’s very unpredictable of whether or not the train is actually going to come or if the train is going to get stuck somewhere.”
According to publicly released data from the top 10 U.S. commuter railroads by passenger volume, Metrolink has the lowest on-time performance of the 10 listed railroads, with 87% of trains arriving on time.
Metrolink’s existing stations can also be difficult for CPP students to access. Ray said, during an urban planning conference at CPP, some people suggested building a Metrolink station near the south of campus, which would provide access to the Riverside Line running through the area. Ray said this would not solve all of the problems because it doesn’t matter if you have a station, if there’s no trains coming to use it.
Do Kim, a professor of urban and regional planning, said many of the rail lines were designed in the ‘20s and ‘30s for a different LA. Kim said that the region’s needs have changed, creating challenges for many, including students commuting to CPP.
“We call it a monocentric (single urban core) city,” Kim said. “Everything was in downtown LA, but now the contemporary city has been devoted to the polycentric (multiple urban cores) city.”
Kim said, rather than changing Metrolink, LA should invest in other forms of public transportation, including bus rapid transit. BRT systems use dedicated lanes to help buses avoid regular traffic. The Silver Streak, which serves CPP, is an example of this type of service.
“My recommendation is that LA Metro may pay attention more for the BRT lines,” Kim said. He said BRT can be easier to implement and more flexible than fixed- rail systems such as Metrolink.
“Use more public transit,” Martin said. “Use it. Try it.”
