County development group sees $1 billion economic boast by extending Gold Line

Construction of the Gold Line Foothill Extension will create nearly 7,000 new jobs and pump nearly $1 billion into the region's economy, according to a new study of the project.

The study completed by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. (LAEDC) projects that about 2,600 new construction jobs that will be needed in order to extend the rail line from its current end in Pasadena to the Azusa/Glendora border.

Economists for LAEDC anticipate the extension will create another 400 or so jobs directly, for a total of around 3,000 jobs. The rest of the employment will come from what economists call indirect jobs - jobs created from supplying the materials to build the line - and "induced jobs" that would be created when all those new workers begin spending their new wages.

"When new jobs are created, those workers go out and spend money they didn't have before," said Gregory Freeman, an LAEDC economist. "That creates more jobs."

The study estimates that the county could see about $930 million in total economic output from the project. That output would include spending by the construction firms hired for the project and by the workers doing the actual construction.

Gold Line officials previously studied the long-term economic impacts of the full Gold Line project. But this was the first study that looked at the immediate benefits from the first phase of the project to extend the line to Azusa/Glendora.