The Metro Rail A Line leaves the Chinatown Station in 2024. The A Line is the longest light-rail line in the world, running for 58 miles, with 44 stops.

Where do you draw the line?

The A Line, on the Los Angeles Metro rail system, is now the longest light-rail line in the world, running for 58 miles, with 44 stops.

I rode the whole line on the opening weekend for the A Line’s $1.5 billion extension. These new 9.1 miles and four stations take trains to Pomona in eastern Los Angeles County.

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I may be the ideal customer for the A Line, because it touches so much of my Southern California life.

I live blocks from its South Pasadena Station. I grew up two blocks from its Fillmore Station, which is next to my pharmacy and our pediatrician. The A Line has stops in Old Town Pasadena (where I hung out as a teenager), in Highland Park (where I hang out now) and in East Pasadena (two blocks from my car mechanic).

On the south end of the line is Long Beach, the California hometown of my father’s family. The A Line has a downtown stop just steps from the old L.A. Times building, where I once worked, and from the Bradbury Building, the home of the think tank where I’m a fellow. As it rolls east through the San Gabriel Valley, the line stops near........

© San Francisco Chronicle