The San Diego Trolley is the light rail system that serves the metropolitan area of San Diego. The operator of the Trolley, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the

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 t ...

(MTS). 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 ...

opened for service on July 26, 1981, Today operates three main lines named the Blue Line, the Orange Line, and the Green Line, as well as a supplementary

heritage streetcar Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles. Trains It may concern trains that have been removed from service and later restored to their past condition, or have never been removed from service, like UP ...

downtown circulator known as the Silver Line that operates mid-days on Tuesdays & Thursdays, and on weekends and holidays.

History

The current operating company of the San Diego Trolley system, San Diego Trolley Incorporated (SDTI), was not founded until 1980 when the Metropolitan Transit Development Board (now operating as San Diego's MTS) began to plan a light-rail service along the Main Line of the former

San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company is a short-line United States, American railroad founded in 1906 as the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A) by sugar magnate, developer, and entrepreneur John D. Spreckels. Dubbed "The Impossi ...

(SD&AE Railway), which the MTDB purchased from 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 ...

in 1979. The Trolley began operations on July 19, 1981, with revenue service beginning on July 26, 1981. Trains at that time operated on a single line between Centre City or

Downtown San Diego Downtown San Diego is the city center of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. In 2010, the Centre City area had a population of more than 28,000. Downtown San Diego serves as the cultural and financial center and ...

and San Ysidro, with stops in some San Diego neighborhoods, and in the cities of National City and

Chula Vista Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fifteenth largest city in the state of California, and the 78th-largest city in the United States. The popu ...

. In March 1986, SDTI opened an extension east from Centre City San Diego to Euclid Avenue, along the La Mesa Branch of the former SD&AE Railway – this new second line of the Trolley was then called the East Line, while the original line opened in 1981 became the South Line. Service was extended along the East Line to Spring Street on May 12, 1989 serving Lemon Grove, and then to La Mesa and

El Cajon El Cajon ( , ; Spanish: El Cajón, meaning "the box") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was in turn named for the box-like shape of the va ...

on June 23, 1989. Service between El Cajon and

Santee Santee may refer to: People * Santee Dakota, a subgroup of the Dakota people, of the U.S. Great Plains * Santee (South Carolina), a Native American people of South Carolina Places * Lake Santee, Indiana, a reservoir and census-designated place * ...

, which is not along the old SD&AE right-of-way, began on August 26, 1995. The "Bayside" extension of the Trolley in San Diego, which operates near the waterfront, opened on June 30, 1990. The first phase of the extension to

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 ...

, from C Street to

Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...

in Downtown San Diego, opened on July 2, 1992. The second phase of the Old Town extension, running from Little Italy to Old Town, opened on June 16, 1996. The "Mission Valley West" SDTI extension, which opened a new Trolley route between Old Town and

Mission San Diego Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity * Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

(which included the

Qualcomm Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadiu ...

stop) commenced service on November 23, 1997, just before San Diego's hosting of Super Bowl XXXII in early 1998. It was at this time that the former South and East Trolley Lines were renamed the Blue Line and Orange Line, respectively. The "Mission Valley East" extension between Mission San Diego and La Mesa opened for service on July 10, 2005, coinciding with the inauguration of the Green Line. Stations along the Blue and Orange lines were renovated during 2010–15 as part of the Trolley Renewal Project.

Current system

The San Diego Trolley system has 62 operational stations serving its four Trolley lines.For station info, see also: Fourteen of the Trolley system's stations operate as transfer stations, which allow passengers to transfer between lines. There is one universal transfer point (i.e. allowing for transfers among all four lines) in the system in downtown San Diego: the 12th & Imperial Transit Center station. The adjacent Santa Fe Depot/ America Plaza/

Courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

stations, which are within walking distance of each other, also allow for transfer among the four lines. Six Trolley stations are end-of-line stations. Of the 63 stations, 37 of them are within the city limits of San Diego, serving various

neighborhoods in San Diego The following is a list of neighborhoods and communities located in the city of San Diego. The City of San Diego Planning Department officially lists 52 Community Planning Areas within the city, many of which consist of multiple different neighbor ...

; the other 16 stations are located in surrounding communities, such as El Cajon and National City. Most stations in the San Diego Trolley system are 'at-grade' stations. There are ten aerial stations in the system and a single underground station ( the SDSU Transit Center station). About half of San Diego Trolley stations offer free

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

lots. Most Trolley stations offer connections to MTS bus lines.

Renamed stations

In 1986, the station on C Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, originally named Gaslamp North or Centre City station, was renamed

Fifth Avenue station Fifth is the Ordinal number (linguistics), ordinal form of the number 5, five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth ...

and has been known as such ever since. The Qualcomm Stadium stop was simply renamed "Stadium" after Qualcomm's naming rights to the stadium expired in June 2017.

Closed station

The San Diego Square station, opened in 1981 on C Street between Seventh & Eighth Avenues downtown, was closed on March 23, 1986, due to low ridership, its close proximity to the (then renamed, see above) Fifth Avenue station, and the desire to eliminate a station in order to accommodate the soon-to-open infill station at E Street (which opened in October 1986) without adding to travel times along the line. Remnants of this old station still remain on C Street between Seventh & Eighth Avenues.

Lines

, trolley service operates on three main lines offering daily service: the Blue, Green, and Orange Lines, and travels through the 62 stations and 65 total miles of mostly double-track rail. A fourth line, the

Silver Line, operates more limited weekday and weekend service, in a clockwise 'circle-loop' around downtown San Diego only.

Stations

The following table lists all stations currently served by the San Diego Trolley.

References

{{San Diego Trolley Stations Trolley Passenger rail transportation in California

Light rail in California Electric railways in California Public transportation in San Diego County, California Transportation in San Diego Railway lines opened in 1981 Tram, urban railway and trolley companies San Diego Trolley stations