Glendora's Train Station Is Quiet on Weekdays. First Saturdays Run Differently.
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"A beautiful light-rail extension that dutifully runs on schedule but with hardly a passenger in sight." Don Linde of La Verne wrote that line in a letter to the Claremont Courier. He was describing the trains he watched from the crossing gates in his town. The Daily Bulletin's David Allen quoted the letter in an April 2026 column, asked Metro for the numbers, and conceded that Linde was largely right about the trains being empty.
The figures Metro gave him back that up. In February 2026, Glendora's station averaged 464 boardings a day. Metro's projection for Glendora is 1,860 daily riders by 2035, so the station needs to roughly quadruple. Pomona, at the end of the line, took about 60% of all boardings across the four new stations that month. In March, Mayor David Fredendall estimated that 50 to 70 cars use the station lot on a typical weekday, and he described the users he sees as mostly commuters. Metro's current parking table lists 298 spaces at the Glendora station.
So on a weekday morning, the lot at 402 S. Vermont Avenue has plenty of empty spaces. On the first Saturday of each month, a free night market sets up in the same lot.
Service at Glendora started September 19, 2025, which makes the station just over a year old as of this month. The weekday riders who do use it have reported going to Arcadia, Pasadena, and downtown Los Angeles. The Tribune talked with one rider headed to an accounting job in Pasadena, and others who ride to Citrus College and Pasadena City College.
Ridership across the four new stations rose modestly over the first winter, from a daily average of 2,817 boardings in October 2025 to 3,038 in February 2026. That February snapshot was the most recent station-level count Metro gave the Daily Bulletin, so any claim about where ridership stands this October would be a guess.
Weekday use has a long way to go, and a ten-year projection judged at month five tells you very little. The weekend side of the station is easier to see, mostly because the costs are set up to favor it.
Metro charges $3 a day to park at Glendora, or $59 a month. Its parking table also says the daily rate doesn't apply on weekends or holidays. A Saturday trip costs only the fare, which is $1.75 one way, with free transfers within two hours and a daily cap of $5. Since May 28, 2026, full-fare riders can tap a credit or debit card, physical or digital, at rail validators. Metro says you need to keep using the same payment method to get transfer and fare-capping benefits.
The city also runs a weekend bus that stops at the station. Glendora's Community Shuttle runs only on Saturdays and Sundays, and its stops include:
A ride costs $1 for adults, 75 cents for K-12 students, and 50 cents for seniors 62 and older and riders with disabilities. The shuttle doesn't run on some holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, so check the city's schedule before planning around it in late November or December.
The 909 Open Market group runs the Glendora A Line Night Market on the first Saturday of each month. It has street-food vendors, food trucks, sweets, live music and DJs, and booths from local makers and artists. Admission is free and all ages are welcome.
Metro also promotes the market. The agency's station-activations calendar listed the October 3, 2026 edition at Glendora Station starting at 5 p.m. as a free event. In March, the Tribune reported that a 909 market had been held at Glendora Station the previous Saturday evening, and that Fredendall and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval both support the 909 Open Market events. Sandoval described seeing hundreds of people, small businesses, and a band playing '80s music at the Pomona North version. The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority promoted the Glendora market and Pomona North's market in its March 2026 newsletter, which marked the extension's approach to six months of service.
The next edition is the one to circle. A third-party events directory lists a "Glendora Holiday Night Market" for Saturday, November 7, 2026, with food vendors, makers, artists, music, and DJs. The organizer hasn't confirmed that date on its own page yet. No December date has been announced, so check 909 Open Market's listing before you head over.
Compare the two uses. On a weekday, the mayor counts 50 to 70 cars in a lot with nearly 300 spaces, and that weekday count is what gets measured against the 2035 projection. Once a month, the same lot fills with food trucks, makers' booths, and DJs, and both admission and weekend parking are free. Nobody has published an attendance count for the Glendora market. It was running in March and was back on Metro's calendar in October.
Glendora Village is about a 12-minute walk north of the station, according to a February 2026 destination guide in the University of La Verne's Campus Times. The guide points riders to Frisella's Roastery, which moved downtown from La Verne, and The Ice Cream Shop across the street. It also lists Lorisa Gardens, Nelson's Drug Store, and Pure Soul as within walking distance.
The same guide also reported that staff at Frisella's and The Ice Cream Shop hadn't yet noticed many customers arriving by train. So the walk from the station to the Village is there for anyone who wants it, but as of February the shops weren't seeing much train traffic. The Village already has its own weekly rhythm around the Wednesday farmers market, which we covered in Wednesday Night Just Became the Busiest Night in Glendora Village. On a first Saturday, the station market and the Village are close enough to do on foot in one evening.
Here's one way to plan a first Saturday without driving across town:
The station also works for a Saturday trip out of town. The Construction Authority puts the trip from Glendora to Pasadena at about 22 minutes. Metro's ride guide estimates about 40 minutes from Pomona North, two stops east of Glendora, to Old Pasadena. Arcadia is also on the line. Trains run as often as seven times an hour in each direction. Metro adjusted A Line timetables on June 7, 2026 to improve reliability and said frequency and operating hours would stay the same.
Allen, the Daily Bulletin columnist, took the train from Pomona to Philippe in Los Angeles for lunch. He noticed the train filling up at each station heading west and emptying out on the way back. No published count shows how many Glendora riders make leisure trips like that, but you can make the same trip from Vermont Avenue on $1.75 fares with a $5 daily cap.
The station area is starting to fill in. The city's development tracker, updated September 30, 2026, lists these projects:
The city's Glendora Station Area Plan says the half-mile around the station could hold up to 1,283 homes in residential or mixed-use projects. The plan is careful about its limits. It doesn't rezone anything, and it doesn't require the city to make any of the changes it suggests.
The station's real commuter base will likely take shape as those Route 66 condos are finished and occupied. For now, the station's most visible weekend use is a free monthly market.
If you own a home within walking distance of the station, the projects on Route 66 and South Vermont, along with the station area plan, may come up when you think about your property's value. The Mark & Al Team follows these changes block by block across Glendora. Request a free home valuation, and we'll walk you through how the station and the nearby projects figure into what your home could sell for.
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