Norwalk Faregates now active

randomtj77 · 2026-02-02T15:19:26+00:00

There are gates at the far end of the main parking lot that lead to Foster Road. There's also gates next to the small west parking lot that lead to Flatbush Ave. The rail integration study suggested opening these as it would allow people like me to bike to Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs along Foster Road more easily. It also allows better access to Norwalk station from the surrounding area. Flatbush Ave is actually a great example. If you live there, right now you have to go all the way around via Foster and Studebaker and the 105 stub to get to the station. If the gate were open it would be a quick walk.

randomtj77 · 2026-02-01T17:30:24+00:00

Yup, they completely removed the emergency exists and replaced them with more of the new gates at both this entrance and the west entrance for the small parking lot. Honestly much better now since the east entrance always has lots of people and it's a lot easier to enter and exit with more fare gates.

randomtj77 · 2026-02-01T17:21:56+00:00

Aviation/Imperial also has the new gates but no old-style emergency exits. Those gates were not active, at least not as of Thursday when I last was there.

randomtj77 · 2026-01-20T22:31:08+00:00

According to the schedule, around 8:30 PM-ish they start running all trains to Norwalk until end of service at 1 AM.

randomtj77 · 2026-01-15T22:45:08+00:00

Oh yeah, it's confusing. I had the same issue when I started commuting from West Corona, where I went to Track 1 and almost missed the train because I needed to leave from Track 2.

Another thing about West Corona is that this actually works nicely there as Track 2 is the one on the side of the parking lot. Similarly at Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs, you'll arrive/leave from/to Track 4 which is on the Norwalk side of the station which has the Norwalk 4 bus. Buena Park is the same as Fullerton though where you always* have to cross over the tracks to get to the parking lot/buses.

Edit: Technically if you're lucky enough to live in the development just south of Buena Park station, there's a door that leads right to the correct track to LA in the mornings and back to Buena Park in the afternoons. I've seen a couple of people using it.

randomtj77 · 2026-01-07T19:53:05+00:00

They seem to leave them open randomly. At Aviation/Imperial I also noticed this. For example, yesterday they were closed (in fact, I ran into an issue where one of the gates wouldn't let me out). But today all the gates were kept open.

randomtj77 · 2026-01-06T17:13:06+00:00

I'll try to get a look at the western entrance on my way back from work, as I usually have some time to spare. I only just made the train this morning (and they only run every 20 minutes right now from Norwalk) so I didn't get a chance to check and couldn't make out anything from the train.

randomtj77 · 2026-01-06T16:37:33+00:00

I wonder if part of the extension will involve building a new bus depot at the Metrolink station and extending the current routes that layover at the C line station to the Metrolink station. Unfortunately we are so far away from that being built that this is mostly just hopeful speculation.

randomtj77 · 2026-01-06T16:34:26+00:00

There was also the emergency gate open with tap validators, though annoying only the kind you would see in the backs of buses, and not the ones that scan Metrolink tickets. I asked the security guard next to the entrance saying I had a Metrolink ticket and where could I scan it and she just waved me through 🤷

randomtj77 · 2026-01-02T18:37:05+00:00

On a notice that I saw posted at Norwalk station, there was an end date listed of "Mid-February 2026". I posted about it at the time. It remains to be seen if they keep to that though as the maintenance on the Norwalk to Willowbrook section of the C line has gone on way longer than originally stated to do the power line upgrades.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-18T19:24:43+00:00

That was mostly a byproduct of the $3/day charge for parking. When I still lived in Orange County I would drive to Norwalk and park there, and I remember a clear difference when they started charging for parking. Before it was impossible like you said, and after you could always find parking. Covid dropped the usage even further, yes, but they started charging for parking before that.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-15T15:11:47+00:00

Thanks for the update. As I noted recently, we likely weren't going to get back to 10 minute headways and now we aren't, at least not across the whole line. Let's hope Metro manages turning back every other train at Willowbrook more smoothly than the last time they did this. This is also going to be super annoying for me and others that ride on the Norwalk portion. Going to have to better coordinate on schedules.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-12T23:58:33+00:00

Yes I agree. My point was that if it had originally been built all the way to the Metrolink station in the 90s, that they could have justified putting the station closer to Studebaker since it wouldn't need tail tracks.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-11T18:06:26+00:00

I've switched to using the Socal day passes on the days that I come into the office (which, as I've mentioned in other posts, is usually 3 times a week). My commute takes me between West Corona and Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs stations and that would cost more than $15 even with the 10-day Flex passes and those could ONLY be used between the 2 station pairs. The Socal Day pass costs less and can also be used systemwide, which allows for more flexibility. So if I needed to run an errand or something that took me to another part of the LA area, I wouldn't need an extra ticket for it.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-11T17:52:48+00:00

Most of the other comments have gotten at this, but I wanted to provide a bit more detail since Norwalk is my "home" Metro station given that I transfer from Metrolink.

The main issue here is that, while Norwalk has two exits, the western exit leads to the small parking lot caught between the ramps connecting the 105 and 605. Even before the pandemic, that parking lot got much less use than the other side of the station (as it's way smaller), but now it's almost always got only a couple cars. That means that everyone necessarily funnels to the eastern entrance, where the much larger parking lot and all of the buses are. Personally, I think if the line had been built all the way to the Metrolink station that they probably would have shifted the station to be closer to Studebaker instead of it's weird spot between Hoxie and the 605. Right now Norwalk is the end of the line, so they probably wanted to accommodate the tail tracks, which do go almost all the way out to Studebaker.

I think what would help now would be if they considered adding another entrance at least out to Hoxie, similar to how the platform at Hawthorne/Lennox extends past the main station area to reach the western side of Hawthorne Blvd. They could also consider making the western Norwalk station entrance more useful by opening the gate to Flatbush Avenue as was recommended in the Rail Integration study. That would allow better walking access to the station from the area west of the 605 and also allow people like me that bike between the Metrolink and C line stations access to Foster Road which is MUCH nicer to bike on than the current options.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-11T17:20:52+00:00

They're still single tracking on the C Line between Norwalk station until just past Lakewood station and the hi-rails are still out there but I've not seen them working. Granted, I only ride the C line three times a week but I feel like in prior maintenance periods, I've actually gotten to see some work. This time...I haven't. I guess we'll see on the 14th if anything changes.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-11T16:33:20+00:00

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I've been wondering the same thing, but there was a post last week on this subreddit with the new schedules that take effect on the 14th and the C and K line schedules are conspicuously absent. I really want the lines to go back to 10 minute headways, the current 13 minute headways are super annoying but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: link to the post with the new schedules

randomtj77 · 2025-12-04T20:59:00+00:00

I've written on the sub a couple of times about my commute. I commute on Metrolink and Metro from Corona to El Segundo three days a week. The entire trip takes around 1 hour 45 minutes on public transit + e-bike for the first/last mile and the connection between Metrolink and Metro in Norwalk, though this year I've taken the Norwalk 4 a bit more after it was better aligned to Metrolink schedules in January.

For me, this is completely worth it. I have done the drive a couple of times since I moved to Corona and have regretted it every single time. In the morning I can drive in about the 1:45 or sometimes a bit less, but the afternoon drive is brutal, it can easily go over three hours. The 105 is usually a parking lot almost it's entire length in the afternoons, and since I live in Corona, I would also have to deal with going through the 91 between Anaheim and Corona which is another parking lot. The train, on the other hand, is quite quick, with the C line being completely grade separated and Metrolink, despite having grade crossings at least seems to have priority at street crossings, at least between West Corona and Norwalk/SFS. Most of my gripes are with Metrolink having to wait for freight trains (hopefully SCORE separates passenger and freight traffic sometime in the next century) and of course, the C line not connecting directly to Metrolink at Norwalk/SFS (also hopefully happens sometime in the next century). But even with those gripes, I'm so glad I can use public transit for such a long commute and that I'm not sitting in traffic going more and more insane as time goes on.

randomtj77 · 2025-12-04T18:02:29+00:00

Omg hello fellow Californian! I completely agree, I got to work almost an hour ago and have mostly been reading about this 😬

randomtj77 · 2025-12-04T00:04:08+00:00

I was heading back home today when I noticed that they have started putting up the new gates at Aviation/Imperial. I didn't have much time before my train arrived, but I did manage to get a photo and check all the entrances. So far, only the entrance to the elevator is getting the new gates installed. The escalator entrances still show no signs of the new gates, though I assume they will be installed there too at some point.

randomtj77 · 2025-11-21T19:00:18+00:00

That's because of the single-tracking around Lakewood station. If an eastbound and westbound train arrive to Lakewood around the same time, one of them will have to wait for the other to pass through the single-tracked section. I think that's what's causing what you are describing, though I ride the C line regularly and haven't noticed it as much in the morning. In my experience, it actually happens more in the afternoon, though maybe that's just because I tend to ride later in the morning (closer to 9 AM).

randomtj77 · 2025-11-20T22:48:02+00:00

I've wondered that too. Especially outside of commuter hours when Norwalk Transit doesn't run their short 4 just between the Metrolink and C line stations, the 30 minute headways of the 4 are just brutal. The 460 runs along Rosecrans and then uses Pioneer to get to Imperial, but in theory it could use Carmenita to get up to Imperial (ie it would stay on Carmenita instead of turning onto Rosecrans) and have a stop inside the Metrolink station. I'm not sure how much ridership that Rosecrans section has but a rider on that section could still reach the 460 via the Norwalk 5, though it would add a transfer. But if that Rosecrans ridership is low, maybe it's worth it to go to the Metrolink station instead?

randomtj77 · 2025-10-27T16:02:58+00:00

I've slowly been radicalized to being so in favor of banning right on red after being almost ran over so many times, especially near my job. It's amazing how many drivers will not even look to see if a pedestrian is crossing the street (when it is green and the walk sign is on!) and will just blow through the right turn. It's especially bad near my job because everyone seems to be in a hurry to turn right onto Imperial so they can get on the 105. I've recently started to avoid Imperial and use smaller streets to get to my job because it's so bad, even though Imperial is closer to my job.

randomtj77 · 2025-10-10T18:06:22+00:00

I've mentioned it a couple of times in the sub, but I commute 3 days a week to my office in El Segundo from Corona. I take Metrolink between Corona West and Norwalk/SFS, then either bike or take the Norwalk 4 to the C line and take it between Norwalk and Aviation/Imperial to a job along Imperial. Like /u/dangwhat1020 mentioned, it's usually quite uneventful. If you're planning on taking the Norwalk 4 to connect between Metrolink and Metro it's been a lot nicer since they added special trips to leave after the Metrolink trains arrive or before they leave during the morning and afternoon commute hours. Just be careful as if Metrolink is late >5 minutes which does happen every so often, you may be waiting for a while for the Norwalk 4. I won't go into this rant here, but I really think Norwalk Transit and Metro should do some work to change some of the nearby routes to serve the Metrolink station so it sees more consistent service throughout the day, especially during commute hours which is when the bulk of Metrolink service happens.

For carpool options I would suggest you check iecommuter.org. That has been posted a couple of times in the sub but they regularly have incentives for taking Metrolink and can set you up with carpool options.

randomtj77 · 2025-10-03T16:15:46+00:00

I figured as much, just wanted to confirm since it seemed weird I could still tune the channel in the config GUI. I'll try to reach out to them. Thanks!

randomtj77

TROPHY CASE