CALIFORNIA - Despite some misgivings, the MTA Board of Directors voted Thursday to use a Spanish translation as the name of the Gold Line's Eastside rail extension, marking a first for the transportation agency.

The entire light rail line, which stretches from Pasadena to the eastern edge of East Los Angeles, will still be called the Gold Line.

But the segment that opens this summer, traversing Boyle Heights and East L.A., will also be named "la Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal" in Spanish-language MTA literature and brochures and on station signs. In English materials, that segment will be called "the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension."

It is the first time the name of an MTA facility, rail or bus line has been translated in any way from English to Spanish.

In her motion, County Supervisor Gloria Molina said that community members had asked that the rail line be referred to in Spanish, which she called a "cornerstone of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles."

But the naming has prompted debate.

Art Herrera, 72, a lifelong Boyle Heights resident and a member of the Review Advisory Committee for the Eastside extension of the Gold Line, criticized the motion.