A B737 CREW; TAXIING FOR TKOF AT ONT; MISTOOK THE PARALLEL TXWY AS THE RWY; REALIZED MISTAKE; RETURNED TO RWY'S END FOR TAKEOFF.

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OUR GATE IS VERY CLOSE TO THE END OF THE RWY; SO OUR TAXI IS VERY SHORT. FLOWS AND CHKLISTS CAN KEEP YOU BUSY. AS WE SWITCHED OUR RADIO TO TWR; THE CTLR ISSUED OUR TKOF CLRNC; WHICH WE ACCEPTED. WE THEN DID OUR TKOF FLOW; WHICH BROUGHT OUR ATTN INSIDE THE COCKPIT; WHILE PERIPHERALLY FOLLOWING THE GREEN CTRLINE LIGHTS. I STARTED TO BRING UP THE PWR IN THE TURN; FOR A ROLLING TKOF. AS I LOOKED UP; I REALIZED THAT WE WERE ON A TXWY. I RETARDED THE PWR TO IDLE. ALTHOUGH WE HAD NOT GONE VERY FAR DOWN THE TXWY; WE WERE NOT IN A POS TO TURN ONTO THE RWY. WE TAXIED TO THE NEXT INTXN; TO RETURN FOR AN UNEVENTFUL TKOF. AS THE FO AND I DISCUSSED THE EVENT IN RETROSPECT; WE WONDERED WHY GREEN CTRLINE LIGHTS; THAT WE WOULD CALL 'LEAD IN' OR 'RWY TURNOFF' LIGHTS ARE THERE LEADING TO ANOTHER TXWY; BUT NOT TO A RWY (SEE CHARTS ATTACHED). AT THIS POINT IN THE TKOF SOME OF OUR WORK IS 'HEADS DOWN' IN THE COCKPIT. WE DEPEND ON OUTSIDE LIGHTS TO BE CONSISTENT; FROM ARPT TO ARPT. WE WATCH THEM WITH OUR PERIPHERAL VISION AS WE TAKE CARE OF TASKS INSIDE THE COCKPIT. AT EVERY OTHER ARPT THAT WE COULD THINK OF; THE GREEN CTRLINE LIGHTS LEAD ON TO THE END OF A RWY. WE BELIEVE THE LACK OF THESE LIGHTS WAS CAUSAL IN MY ERROR. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: AN ONT TWR SPECIALIST REVEALED THAT; TXWYS N; FROM TXWY W TO TXWYS K; L; P; R; U; V; AND W ALL HAVE GREEN CTRLINE LIGHTING. IT WAS ALSO STATED THAT BOTH TXWYS V AND W'S GREEN CTRLINE LIGHTS EXTEND FROM TXWY N1 TO RWY 26R. THIS CONFIGN HAS BEEN IN EFFECT FOR SOMETIME.