The Santa Paula Branch Line is a railway corridor in

Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a County (United States), county located in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, Ca ...

. It connects Saugus and

Santa Paula Santa Paula (Spanish for " St. Paula") is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. Situated amid the orchards of the Santa Clara River Valley, the city advertises itself to tourists as the "Citrus Capital of the World". Santa Pau ...

through the

Santa Clara River Valley The Santa Clara River Valley is a rural, mainly agricultural valley in Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a County (United States), county located in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of t ...

, though the route east of Piru is out of service. It opened for traffic by the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

in 1887. Since 1995 the line has been owned by the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

History

The track is a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

railroad constructed in 1887 by the Southern Pacific Branch Railway Company (a company controlled by and later absorbed into the

) through the

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...

, California. This line was originally part of the Southern Pacific's main line between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

before the shorter Montalvo Cutoff was built through the

Santa Susana Mountains The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in Southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west, separating the San Fernando and Simi valleys on its south from the Santa ...

in 1904. State Route 126 follows roughly the same route from Ventura to

Santa Clarita Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-most populous city in Los Angeles County, the 17th-most populo ...

. Much of the line was destroyed by flooding from the St. Francis Dam failure in 1928. The track was used extensively by Southern Pacific as late as the 1950s to haul

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

from packing houses at the communities along the Santa Clara River. The eastern end of the line terminates in Piru as storm damage in 1979 severed the eastern end to Saugus in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. Southern Pacific formally abandoned the line in 1983. In 1995, the Ventura County Transportation Commission purchased the

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

from Southern Pacific. The Fillmore and Western Railway rented the line starting in 1991. The company operated excursion trains as well as hosted trains for film shoots. Fillmore and Western's lease agreement expired after June 30, 2021. The final scheduled excursion trip was on June 26. In 2021, Sierra Northern Railway signed a 30-year lease to operate over the Santa Paula Branch Line. They will also maintain the rail line. During the first year of operation, they ran one train a week and continued pursuing the filming business. A section of the bridge over

Sespe Creek Sespe Creek (Chumashan languages, Chumash: S'eqp'e', "Kneecap") is a stream, some long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 in Ventura County, California, Ve ...

washed away on January 10, 2023, during the extended rain storms that hit California.

Proposed upgrade and expansion

Transportation planners in the Southern California region have been studying the feasibility of restoring the eastern end of the line between Santa Paula and Santa Clarita in order to establish Metrolink service, at least since 1991. This would require bringing existing track up to passenger standards, adding passing sidings and acquisition of new right-of-way for track between the current eastern terminus of the line located just west of

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, 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 thro ...

(I-5) and Metrolink's

Antelope Valley Line The Antelope Valley Line is a commuter rail line that serves the Northern Los Angeles County area as part of the Metrolink system. The northern segment of the line is rural in character because it travels through the sparsely populated Soleda ...

. The new line would also require construction of a bridge over the south fork of the Santa Clara River and an at-grade crossing or a

flying junction A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is "gr ...

San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Within the Burbank city limits it is signed as San Fernando Boulevard, and north of Newhall Pass it is signed as The Old Road. It was previously designat ...

. This line would have the potential to relieve some of the current commuter load on the I-5 corridor between State Route 126 and State Route 14 as well as providing future commute options for

housing development A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throug ...

in northern

and Ventura County communities in the

Rail trail

Segments of the line in Santa Paula, Fillmore, and Piru are paralleled by the Santa Paula Branch Line Recreational Trail.

References

{{reflist Rail lines in California Transportation in Ventura County, California Railway lines opened in 1887 Southern Pacific Railroad lines