Ground Broken for Area Metrolink Station

A planned Metrolink station for Chatsworth moved closer to reality Wednesday with a groundbreaking for the $1.7-million facility, which will include a day-care center.

The day-care center, one of the few its kind, will be housed in a 12,000-square-foot building that will include retail and office space, transportation officials said. The idea, they said, is to increase ridership by making the station convenient to commuters.

Plans include adding connecting bus lines to transform the station into a complete transportation center, officials said.

Los Angeles Councilman Hal Bernson, who helped spearhead the project, said the facility will also help revitalize Chatsworth’s downtown.

“This is a great day for the community,” he said. “This will someday be an important part of the downtown.”

The facility, on Old Depot Plaza Road, just south of Devonshire Street and west of Canoga Avenue, has been more than four years in the planning. It is expected to be completed in October, officials said. The station is now a parking lot with a temporary platform.

About 270 Metrolink commuters use the line each day, Metrolink officials said. Six Amtrak trains and four Amtrak buses also use the station each day.

Some Chatsworth residents remember an old train station at the site that was owned by Southern Pacific Railroad. That station was razed in 1962. The new station, Bernson said, will help fill the void.

Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said passengers like the idea of a child-care center. A study, he said, showed that “83% would ride Metrolink even more if there was a child-care facility located in the station.”

The center will be modeled after a similar facility at the Montclair Metrolink Station in San Bernardino County, which opened in September, Hidalgo said. That operation, he said, has been a success.

The Chatsworth center, which will have capacity for 90 children, will accept infants to 5-year-olds, Hidalgo said. Preference, he said, will be given to Metrolink passengers, who will receive a discount in child-care fees.

Funding will come from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which will pay $929,000; the city of Los Angeles, $600,000, and the state, $250,000, officials said. Ko-Am Company Inc. of Los Angeles is the building contractor.