Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/05/2012 04:18:13 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Metrolink trains may rumble to a new station in the city’s downtown by mid-decade.

“It will be a miniature of the new ARTIC center in Anaheim, or our great station in downtown L.A.,” San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris said while comparing the planned station to another one planned for Anaheim and historic Union Station in Los Angeles.

Morris is also a board member for San Bernardino Associated Governments, the regional transportation planning agency for San Bernardino County.

Wednesday, SanBAG’s board certified the environmental impact report for a new station and an extension of Metrolink’s Los Angeles-to-San Bernardino line to downtown San Bernardino. The board’s vote helps clear the way for SanBAG officials to make right-of-way acquisitions and put the project to bid.

The Santa Fe depot, built in 1918, is a Moorish-style building that currently serves as the eastern terminus for Metrolink’s heavily used Los Angeles-to-San Bernardino line.

The planned extension of that line calls for the construction of about one mile of new track that will carry trains to a new station to be built near the intersection of Rialto Avenue and E Street.

Pending federal approval of SanBAG’s plans, Wednesday’s vote lets the agency begin negotiations to buy properties along the planned track extension, said Mitch Alderman, SanBAG’s director of transit and rail programs.

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