Old Town Transit Center, also known as San Diego–Old Town station or Old Town San Diego station, is an intermodal transportation station located in the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

neighborhood of

San Diego, California 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 eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. It is served by

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 ''

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 ...

'', the

COASTER Coaster (stylized as COASTER) is a commuter rail service in the central and northern coastal regions of San Diego County, California, United States operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD). The commuter rail line features eight s ...

commuter rail service, and the

San Diego Trolley The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...

, as well as numerous

San Diego Metropolitan Transit System The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (''SDMTS'' or often simply ''MTS'') is a public transit service provider for Central, South, Northeast and Southeast San Diego County. The agency directly operates a large transit system that includes th ...

bus lines. The station is located at the intersection of Rosecrans Street/Taylor Street and Pacific Highway, adjacent to

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, located in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego, California, is a state protected historical park in San Diego. It commemorates the early days of the City of San Diego and includes many historic buildings ...

and the freeway intersection of

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

and

Interstate 8 Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, ...

. It is also located about two miles southeast of

SeaWorld San Diego SeaWorld San Diego is an animal theme park, oceanarium, outside aquarium and marine mammal park, in San Diego, California, United States, inside Mission Bay Park. It is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. SeaWorld San Diego ...

and Mission Bay, providing access to the northernmost beaches in the city of San Diego. Free parking (Park & Ride) for up to 24-hours is available in the Transit Center lots.

History

The Old Town Transit Center was built in the early 1990s, and

's North/South Line was extended here on June 16, 1996. In November 1997, the line, renamed the Blue Line, was extended into

Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Missi ...

. When the Green Line service was introduced with the opening of the Mission Valley East extension on July 10, 2005, the Blue Line's northern terminus was pushed back to this station, which also served as the Green Line's western terminus. During a system redesign on September 2, 2012, as part of the Trolley Renewal Project, MTS extended the western terminus of the Green Line from this station to 12th & Imperial Bayside Terminal and shortened the Blue Line's northern terminus to America Plaza. The Special Event Line was eliminated; and instead, the Green Line added cars and offer more frequent service to

Petco Park Petco Park is a baseball stadium in Downtown San Diego, California. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres, and has also been used as a venue for concerts, soccer, golf, and rugby. The ballpark is located between Se ...

San Diego Convention Center The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center in San Diego, California. It is located in the Marina district of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive. The center is managed by the San Diego Con ...

, Aztec Stadium and

Viejas Arena Viejas Arena (formerly Cox Arena) is the home stadium of the San Diego State Aztecs men's and women's basketball teams. It is located on the San Diego State University (SDSU) campus in San Diego, California. Viejas Arena opened in July 1997 an ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

when necessary.

Service

Commuter and intercity rail

The Old Town Transit Center hosts passenger trains operating on

's ''

'' intercity rail route and on the

commuter rail line. Of the 22 weekday

''Pacific Surfliner'' trains operating in San Diego, 18 of them stop at the Old Town Transit Center, though the Surfliner trains operating at Old Town do not offer checked luggage service, and stop at Old Town to board passengers (northbound trains) or detrain passengers (southbound trains) only, respectively. Amtrak ridership at Old Town Transit Center has exploded between Fiscal Year 2011 and 2013. In Fiscal Year 2011, there were just 22,867 boardings and detrainings at Old Town (which was a 5.79% increase over Fiscal Year 2010). In Fiscal Year 2012, boardings and detrainings at Old Town rose to 61,118, a 167% increase over FY2011. As of Fiscal Year 2013, the Amtrak ridership figure has continued to rise, to 135,749 boardings and detrainings, a further 122% increase over FY2012. (There has been a corresponding decrease in Amtrak boardings at the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego over this same period, possibly indicating that some Amtrak boardings have been relocating from Santa Fe Depot to Old Town over the past two years.) Of the 74 California stations served by Amtrak, the Old Town Transit Center was the 25th-busiest in Fiscal Year 2013, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 372 passengers daily.

San Diego Trolley

Old Town Transit Center is also a light rail station on the

's Green Line. This station originally served as that line's terminus, until a system realignment in September 2012 extended the Green Line though Old Town to Downtown San Diego. The Trolley's Mid-Coast extension that was completed in November 2021 extends to serve the University City area. In July 2015, a 30-year naming rights agreement between MTS and

UC San Diego Health UC San Diego Health is the academic health system of the University of California, San Diego in San Diego, California. It is the only academic health system serving San Diego and has one of only two adult Level I trauma centers in the region. In ...

was announced; as a result of this agreement, the Blue Line will be renamed "UC San Diego Blue Line" and the Old Town Transit Center will become "Old Town UC San Diego Health South".

Bus service

Old Town also operates as a bus transit center for

's routes 8, 9, 10, 28, 30, 35, 44, 83, 88, and 105. There is an underground pedestrian tunnel linking bus terminals on both sides of the station with the trolley/train areas. Old Town is also served by

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

shuttles. The station is also served by

San Diego International Airport San Diego International Airport , formerly known as Lindbergh Field, is an international airport northwest of Downtown San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.. US Federa ...

's San Diego Flyer shuttle which operates every 20 to 30 minutes between the Old Town Transit Center, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. The station also sees service from shuttle buses to

Viejas Casino Viejas Casino and Resort is a hotel casino and outlet center owned by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, located in Alpine, California. The casino has over 2,000 slot machines, up to 86 table games, three restaurants, a deli, bingo, an off-trac ...

Station layout

There are four tracks; two tracks are designated for the San Diego Trolley services, while the other two tracks are used for COASTER, Amtrak, and

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

freight service.

References

External links

COASTER StationsOld Town Transit Center – SDMTS
* ttp://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=663 Old Town San Diego State Historic Park (California State Parks) {{Amtrak California stations Amtrak stations in San Diego County, California Blue Line (San Diego Trolley) Green Line (San Diego Trolley) North County Transit District stations San Diego Trolley stations in San Diego Transit centers in the United States Bus stations in San Diego County, California Railway stations in San Diego Railway stations in the United States opened in 1994 1994 establishments in California