1995: The Start of Operations for Solana Beach Transit Center in California

February 6, 1995

While not yet completed, an Amtrak train station in San Diego County’s city of Solana Beach in southern California first went into service. Solana Beach Transit Center was built to take the place of a longtime station in the nearby city of Del Mar.

In reporting on the Monday debut of Solana Transit Center, North County Times staff writer Tom Bradley Jr. also highlighted the station that it was replacing. “At 11:19 p.m. Sunday night more than a century of Del Mar railroad history went the way of the steam locomotive,” noted Bradley. “This morning, Amtrak will move the stop to a new station under construction a mile [1.6 kilometers] or so up the tracks at 105 N. Cedras Ave. in Solana Beach.”   

Starting on its first day of operations, Solana Beach Transit Center has been a key link in northern San Diego County for the Amtrak passenger train service that is now known as the Pacific Surfliner. The Pacific Surfliner, which covers 350 miles (560-kilometers) between the Golden State cities of San Diego and San Luis Obispo, is Amtrak’s busiest service outside the northeastern region of the United States.

Solana Beach Transit Center is owned by the North County Transit District (NCTD), the agency responsible for public transportation in that part of San Diego County. Three weeks after Solana Beach Transit Center was introduced as a depot for Amtrak, it also became a station for the NCTD commuter rail service that is called COASTER.

Rob Wellington Quigley was the architect who designed Solana Beach Transit Center. He based much of his design on Quonset huts that existed in that vicinity of the city during the 1940s. Quigley also added a tower to the hut-shaped form of the station. This tower was intended to resemble those that were a regular feature of numerous train depots in the 19^th century.

Photo Credit: Jorobeq at English Wikipedia (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/deed.en)

For more information on Solana Beach Transit Center, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solana_Beach_Transit_Center