On Sept. 12, ground was broken for the new Goleta Train Station. This ceremony was the result of years of planning on a new station to replace the current facility. The ceremony was attended by city, county, and state officials, including Goleta Mayor Paula Perotti, County Supervisor Das Williams, former Mayor Michael T. Bennett, and Senator Monique Limon.
Development of the Goleta Train Station has been ongoing since Direct Relief, a nonprofit humanitarian organization, left the storage warehouse currently located on the site.
“The concept was brought to council by myself and the city manager at the time,” Bennett said.
The city showed immediate interest in the concept, recognizing the need to have a full-service train station in Goleta.
“They were interested,” Bennett said. “They didn’t know what the costs would be since they hadn’t been determined. Once the costs were determined, the council decided they had the money available to go ahead and approve it.”
“It went forward, and the end result is that it just took time for the process to work,” Bennett said.
The ground breaking ceremony consisted of speeches by city, county, and state officials. The ceremony concluded with officials digging into a pile of dirt to symbolize the start of the project.
The new station will be the fifth one built in the City of Goleta. The first two Goleta railroad stations were built in 1887 when the Southern Pacific Railroad reached Goleta from the south, using what is now Vieja Drive as their route. These stations were located off of what is now Ekwill Street and South La Patera Lane. The Ekwill Street station was used until 1901 when the railroad tracks were realigned. The station was moved to the city of Sunnyvale near San Jose and was replaced with a larger station.
The third Goleta station was located north of the original station, in between Depot Road and South Kellogg Avenue This station was used by the Southern Pacific Railroad until 1973, when it was abandoned. The depot was preserved and moved to a site off of Los Carneros Road, where it serves as the South Coast Railroad Museum.
The fourth Goleta station was a small platform and shelter built around 2000 off of La Patera near the former Goleta Lemon Association building. It was built to support the Pacific Surfliner train service.
The construction of the new train station will allow for increased train service, with the addition of two planned Pacific Surfliner round trips. Additionally, the commuter service, Metrolink, will add a single round trip into Goleta starting in the spring of 2025. The construction will not affect train service.
The increased train service is projected to reduce traffic on roads during rush hours. Cars going to and from Dos Pueblos High School will encounter less through traffic from commuters going to work.
“[The increased train service] will cut down on … some of the traffic that’s commuting traffic,” Goleta City Manager Robert Nisbet said.
City officials projected a fairly short construction time for the new station.
”We look forward to celebrating this new train depot with you by the summer of 2026,” City Official Jaime Valdez said.
