Orange station, formally the Orange Transportation Center is an

intermodal transit Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths (and offset the weaknesses) of various transportati ...

station in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before ...

. It serves Metrolink trains as well as

Orange County Transportation Authority The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the transportation planning commission for Orange County, California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. OCTA is responsible for funding and implementing transit and capital projects for th ...

buses. The station is located at the site of two former

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

combination depots. The present depot structure was dedicated on May 1, 1938 and was closed with the Santa Fe's discontinuation of passenger service in 1971. The building was granted historic landmark status by the City on November 15, 1990.

History

The town's first rail service, the Santa Ana, Orange & Tustin Street Railway, was a 4.04 mile (6.5 km) long

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

line that ran between Santa Ana and Orange, beginning in 1886. One year later the Santa Ana & Orange Motor Road Company purchased the line, using a steam "dummy" car and a single gasoline motorcar as its means of conveyance. In 1906 Henry E. Huntington acquired the company under the auspices of the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway and electrified the line. Passenger service over the new line operated by Huntington's

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

began on June 8, 1914, originating at the PE's depot on Lemon Street. The route provided freight service to the local citrus growers in direct competition with the Santa Fe. In 1961 Pacific Electric sold out to the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

, who ultimately abandoned the line in 1964. The Santa Fe, under its affiliate the

Southern California Railway Southern California Railway was formed on November 7, 1889. it was formed by consolidation of California Southern Railroad Company, the California Central Railway Company, and the Redondo Beach Railway Company. A second consolidation and reform ...

, laid its first tracks through Orange in 1886 and established its first Orange depot in 1888. The route would become part of the railroad's famous "

Surf Line The Surf Line is a railroad line that runs from San Diego north to Orange County along California's Pacific Coast. It was so named because much of the line is near the Pacific Ocean, within less than in some places. The tracks are now owned by ...

" and by 1925 sixteen daily passenger trains (the Santa Fe's '' San Diegan'') made stops in Orange. During peak growing seasons, as many as 48 carloads of

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...

fruits In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particula ...

olives The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...

, and

walnuts A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bot ...

were shipped daily from the Orange depot as well. Service returned to the station on December 6, 1993, when

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Orange County Commuter The Orange County Line is a commuter rail line run by Metrolink from Los Angeles through Orange County to Oceanside in San Diego County, connecting with the Coaster commuter rail service to San Diego. The Orange County Line carries passengers ...

'' began stopping there. The ''Orange County Commuter'' became Metrolink's

Orange County Line The Orange County Line is a commuter rail line run by Metrolink from Los Angeles through Orange County to Oceanside in San Diego County, connecting with the Coaster commuter rail service to San Diego. The Orange County Line carries passengers ...

on March 28, 1994. The

Inland Empire–Orange County Line The Inland Empire–Orange County (IEOC) Line is a commuter rail line run by Metrolink in Southern California. It runs from San Bernardino through Orange County to Oceanside in northern San Diego County. It is the only Metrolink line not to ser ...

began stopping here with its October 2, 1995 opening. The train station currently houses a

Ruby's Diner Ruby's Diner is a restaurant chain aesthetically designed after American diners of the Swing Era. It first opened on December 7, 1982 by Doug Cavanaugh and Ralph Kosmides. Ruby's Diner serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a menu that include ...

. On October 29, 2007

added a stop at Orange to the

Pacific Surfliner The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is a passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo. The service carried 2,924,117 passengers during fiscal year 2016, a 3.4% increase from F ...

route. Just two morning and two evening trains stopped at this station each day. But by 2010 the station was only serving an average of seven passengers a day. Because of the weak ridership the stop was cancelled in early 2013.

Service

Rail connections to Los Angeles, the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the cities o ...

, and Northern San Diego County are provided by the Metrolink regional commuter rail network. The Metrolink platform is situated adjacent to the former Santa Fe depot in the downtown Historic District, which is also home to an

(OCTA) bus station. The former Santa Fe mainline links the cities of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

, and

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

via a junction north of the station.

Hours and frequency

Bus docks

*Dock 1 -

OC Bus OC Bus is the transit bus service operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), serving every city in Orange County. Some of the lines serve the Los Angeles County border communities of Lakewood, La Mirada, Cerritos, Hawai ...

: , *Dock 2 - OC Bus: , *Dock 3 -

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...

shuttle

References

External links

* * *
Orange Amtrak-Metrolink Station (USA RailGuide -- TrainWeb)Orange (OGE)--Great American Stations (Amtrak)
{{Amtrak California stations Former Amtrak stations in California Metrolink stations in Orange County, California Former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway stations in California Transportation in Orange, California History of Orange County, California

Bus stations in Orange County, California Railway stations in the United States opened in 1888 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1938 Railway stations closed in 1971 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1993