Particle.news
Santa Fe Depot in San Diego, California, is a union station built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to replace the small Victorian-style structure erected in 1887 for the California Southern Railroad Company. The Spanish Colonial Revival style station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a San Diego Historic Landmark. Its architecture, particularly the signature twin domes, is often echoed in the design of modern buildings in Downtown San Diego. The historic depot is located in the Core district of Downtown San Diego and is still an active transportation center, providing services to Amtrak intercity trains, Coaster commuter rail trains, the San Diego Trolley, and the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System bus system. The Santa Fe Depot (as it was originally designated) officially opened on March 8, 1915, to accommodate visitors to the Panama-California Exposition. The depot was completed during a particularly optimistic period in the city's development and represents the battle waged by the City of San Diego to become the West Coast terminus of the Santa Fe's transcontinental railroad, a fight that was ultimately lost to the City of Los Angeles. In its heyday, the facility not only handled Santa Fe traffic but also that of the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A) and San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy). The designation was officially changed to "San Diego Union Station" in response to the SD&A's completion of its own transcontinental line in December 1919. Santa Fe resumed solo operation of the station in January 1951 when the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway (successor to the SD&A) discontinued passenger service, the SDERy having ceased operation some two years prior. Of the 77 California stations served by Amtrak in Fiscal Year 2017, the Santa Fe Depot was the third busiest in California (behind only Los Angeles Union Station and Sacramento Valley Station) and the 10th busiest in the Amtrak system, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 2,130 passengers daily.
