Metrolink Plans 2nd Santa Clarita Valley Stop : Transit: The new station, scheduled to open before the end of the year, will bring commuter rail service closer to the Antelope Valley.

Metrolink officials said Friday they plan to open a station in the eastern Santa Clarita Valley by the end of the year to serve Antelope Valley commuters traveling to the San Fernando Valley or downtown Los Angeles.

The stop will be a temporary measure to bring Metrolink service closer to Antelope Valley commuters until the commuter train service is extended to Palmdale and Lancaster sometime in the next five years, Metrolink officials said.

The site for the proposed stop, off the Antelope Valley Freeway just east of Via Princessa, is about six miles east of the current Santa Clarita stop on Soledad Canyon Road. That station will remain open. Antelope Valley commuters would still have to drive on the congested Antelope Valley Freeway to reach the new stop, but will not have to drive into the city of Santa Clarita or put up with the heavily traveled Golden State Freeway to catch the Metrolink trains heading south.

Specific plans for the eastern Santa Clarita Valley stop and the eventual extension of rail service to the Antelope Valley are expected to be developed by county transportation officials this summer, Metrolink spokesman Brendan Shepherd said Friday.

The date when service to the Antelope Valley will begin will depend largely on when funds are available from state rail bond measures and from Proposition C, a half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 1990, Metrolink officials said.

Another variable in the timetable is the amount of work needed to straighten some of the sharp curves in the track so trains can travel at faster speeds, they said.

Plans to extend Metrolink service to the Antelope Valley got a boost in September when Southern Pacific railroad sold county transportation officials 78 miles of rail right of way between Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley for $68 million, about 40% less than the value of the land, officials said.

The Metrolink extension was a topic of discussion Thursday night at a meeting of the Palmdale City Council when a city planner said Metrolink service would not reach the Antelope Valley for 10 to 15 years.

Metrolink officials rejected that estimate Friday, saying they would like to begin such service within five years, though an exact date is still uncertain.

Judy Wilson, deputy executive director of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said extension plans are “actively under study” and should be completed by the summer. She said county transportation officials have “never said anything like 10 to 15 years.”

Plans for the extension were greeted warmly in the Antelope Valley.

Howard Brooks, executive director of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, said he welcomes the planned stop in eastern Santa Clarita because it would shorten the freeway commute for many Antelope Valley residents, even though the rail service will not reach them for years.

“As close as we can get it would be wonderful,” he said. “I think people will use it even if they have to drive half an hour” to get to it.

Brooks said Antelope Valley residents are eager to have rail passenger service but understand that it will not be feasible until the curves in the track between Santa Clarita and Palmdale are straightened sufficiently to allow a fast rail commute.