Highland Park resident Yamileth Batres travels from her home near Southwest Museum to class at Pasadena City College via the Metro Gold Line light rail train about three times a week. After her final class each day, she braces for the 10-minute wait at the Allen station.

"After a long day at school, I've been learning and reading in class all day, I get to the Metro station and all the noise just makes me get a headache," she said.

The chaotic noise comes from cars whizzing past the station because Allen station is one of three Gold Line stops in Pasadena along with Sierra Madre Villa and Lake that sit in the middle of 12 lanes of traffic on the Interstate 210 Freeway. These stations are narrow islands whose inhabitants are on the same level as vehicles hurrying by at 70 mph.

Even during times of slow-moving traffic, passengers say they can't concentrate or talk on their phones. Many turn to portable music players to dampen the cacophony of engines, grinding tires and wind.

Batres said she's tempted to wait on the stairs leading up the platform, where the roar of vehicle traffic is noticeably less harsh. But she fears missing her train because the doors remain open for only a short period before departing.

Seven years after the Gold Line opened, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority is nearly ready to bring people such as Batres some relief as they await their trains.

Metro plans to have train arrival monitors installed by December in areas near the stations that are much quieter than the platforms.

Those locations include the entrance to the pedestrian bridge in the parking structure just north of Sierra Madre Villa, the street-level ticketing area below the freeway at Allen and under the clock tower atop the Lake Avenue bridge.

By comparing train arrival times with the current time on the displays, Gold Line riders would be able to minimize waiting time on the platforms.

Metro will install 64 LCD monitors in total along the entire Gold Line to provide the train information system that has already been added to the Metro Red and Purple lines.

The monitors can also display--in video or text--public service announcements, schedule changes and emergency messages.

Although the displays can only show scheduled train arrival data, Metro is working on the ability to generate estimated times based on the real-time locations of trains.

Metro Wayside Communications Manager Daniel Lindstrom said Metro should learn by the end of March on how much such a project would cost. However, he did emphasize that Metro trains are on-time 99 percent of the time.

Lindstrom said displays at the Gold Line stops will always appear in shaded areas above ticket-vending machines and the middle of each platform above map displays. One-line overhead LED screens with arrival messages will be placed on the corners of platforms.

The project's funding comes from a $7 million grant awarded in January
2007 to the Greater Los Angeles area, including Long Beach and Santa
Ana. The grant was part of the Department of Homeland Security's $141
million Transit Security Grant Program, meant for protecting mass transit systems in the highest-risk urban areas.

On Sept. 24, 2009, the Metro Board of Directors awarded a $1.3 million contract to JM Fiber Optics to provide the monitors, cases, media players and software for the Gold Line information system from Pasadena through the Eastside extension.

According to Carla Duarte, project manager for JM Fiber Optics, the company will deliver the final pieces for the Gold Line by the end of April. Metro personnel will handle the installation.

Extra costs in the new contract include $229,000 for two years of technical support and $272,000 for weather-resistant cases for the displays.

The installations will not come soon enough for Westlake resident David Carter, who takes the Gold Line several times a week to get from McArthur Park to CalTech and expressed frustration with the noise.

"It's terrible times two," he said. "You can't even hear yourself think. You can't make a phone call. I wanted to make a call today, so I went up to the street. I usually wait up there at the ticket booth on the street and wait to see the train come. That's the only way."

The L.A. to Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority, which led the effort to build the Gold Line, determined that noise reached as high as 85 decibels on the platforms. Normal conversation tops out at about 70 decibels.

The City of Pasadena began searching for solutions to alleviate concerns about the noise in 2004, hiring construction design consultant CH2M Hill to find the most feasible solution.

The consultant's May 2006 memo recommended installing clear plexiglass or sound walls on the existing barriers to reduce noise by up to 10 decibels. But MTA and Caltrans raised concerns with those solutions at a December 2006 meeting.

"Based on wind load tests and the clearance space needed for trains, Caltrans said building on the existing barriers would not be feasible, and MTA wouldn't allow certain things on their platforms like sliding doors to enclose the platform," Pasadena's city engineer Dan Rix said.

Federal Americans with Disabilities Act standrards required Metro to have a visual alternative to the existing public address audio system at Gold Line stations, so officials suggested combining efforts.

After a follow-up study by CH2M Hill confirmed that placing a train arrival notification system in a quieter area would be the most feasible and effective alternative, Metro made plans in early 2007 to deploy such a system along the Gold Line.

Rix said Pasadena, which had earmarked $1 million for sound mitigation at the stations, will now put some of those funds toward enhancing the areas in which Metro places the displays by adding benches, artwork, greenery and other amenities.

Pasadena resident Matt Billingslea, who rides the Gold Line daily, said the problem does not end with the three Pasadena stations.

"The Green Line which stops in the middle of the Interstate 105 Freeway is five times louder," he said while exiting the Lake station. "I can't even hear the speakers with the announcements."

Duarte acknowledged discussions with Metro about also deploying an information system on the Green and Blue Lines.

Lindstrom said Metro rail operations plans to hear back about funding requests for those projects in the late spring. Funding would come from remaining Homeland Security grant money and Prop 1B allocations. If approved, displays would not appear for at least two more years.

JM Fiber Optics is in discussions with transportation officials in Florida, Hong Kong and Turkey to provide similar displays to those entities.