Fort Towson

Santa Barbara station is a passenger rail station in Santa Barbara, California, served by two Amtrak lines, the Coast Starlight and the Pacific Surfliner. The station is fully staffed with ticketing and checked baggage services.

Santa Barbara station is served by ten Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains (five in each direction) evenly spaced throughout the day.[3]

In Fiscal Year 2022, 213,697 passengers boarded or detrained at Santa Barbara station.[1]

History

Santa Barbara station in a 1910 postcard
The station in 2007 after renovation in 2000

The station was built in 1902 by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the Spanish Mission Revival Style. Design work was by Santa Barbara architect Francis W. Wilson.[4] It is located within walking distance of Santa Barbara Harbor, Stearns Wharf and State Street, Santa Barbara's main thoroughfare. The historic depot was renovated in 2000; the project included the restoration of the ticket office and upgrades to the plumbing, electrical and heating and cooling systems.[5]

For most of the first decade of the Amtrak era, the station was only served by the Coast Starlight, which ran southbound during the evening rush and northbound at lunchtime. In 1988, Amtrak and Caltrans extended the San Diegan, previously a Los Angeles-San Diego service, to Santa Barbara, providing an additional round trip between the Central Coast and Los Angeles. Eventually, service was extended to nearby Goleta and later all the way to San Luis Obispo, resulting in the route being rebranded as the Pacific Surfliner in 2000.

Due to the length of the platform, when Amtrak's Coast Starlight train is stopped, it blocks the two streets to the north and south of the depot.[6]

The station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 2, 2006.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: State of California" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. ^ "Pacific Surfliner Timetable" (PDF). Pacific Surfliner. October 6, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  4. ^ Starr, Kevin (1991). Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s. Oxford University Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-19-507260-0.
  5. ^ Great American Stations. Accessed February 20, 2013.
  6. ^ "Train Web: Santa Barbara".

External links

Media related to Santa Barbara station at Wikimedia Commons