The Goleta train depot project is chugging along as the city celebrated the start of construction Thursday morning. 

The multimodal train station at 27 S. La Patera Lane will include a community room, a cafe, automated ticketing machines, a waiting area, bike storage lockers, and restrooms. The station will feature large windows, covered walkways and outdoor areas, and half of the roof will have solar panels. 

The station will be next to the existing Amtrak platform along the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo rail corridor (LOSSAN). The existing building will be demolished, and the footprint will be reduced from 40,000 square feet to about 8,500 square feet.

The station also will allow for easier access to bus services, more parking and shuttle opportunities.

“This project has the potential to transform the transportation landscape of Goleta by establishing a full-service transit hub that will serve as a cornerstone of our community’s connectivity,” Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte said. “I envision travelers and commuters arriving at the station creating a positive and memorable first impression of our vibrant community, showcasing the best of Goleta.”

City, county and state leaders were in attendance at Thursday’s celebration, including Michael Bennett, a former Goleta City Council member who helped introduce the idea to improve the train stop.

“​​My vision was a multimodal transportation center, and that began only because I had gotten contacted that this property was going to become available in the not-too-distant future,” Bennett said. “That made that concept realistic.”

The station’s site was formerly operated by Direct Relief. When it decided to move to a new building, it contacted Bennett to see if the city would want to use the site to improve the Amtrak platform. Bennett then helped bring the idea to the City Council. 

Bennett said they were motivated by learning that many residents didn’t want to go to the Goleta train stop and that many passengers would instead drive to the Santa Barbara station.

“People didn’t want to use this facility because they felt unsafe,” Bennett said. “It’s off the beaten path, and when you get back over here behind this building, you can’t see anything.”

The total cost of the project is $32 million, which includes design and construction costs, and acquisition of the property. The state Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program awarded $18.6 million for the project to the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.

Councilman James Kyriaco said the new station will help support Goleta’s growing workforce. 

“Goleta has added over 5,000 jobs in the last 10 years or so, more than any city in this county, and many of those are high-paying and high-technology jobs,” Kyriaco said. “What that means is that we need to find safe, convenient and sustainable alternatives for those commuters.”

Kyriaco said this project will help commuters who want to give up their vehicles to save money and help the environment. 

“In a time where more people than ever are being squeezed by student loan debt, the high cost of living, they’re looking for alternatives to car loans and car maintenance costs, while they also want to reduce their carbon footprint, they want to have sustainable alternatives,” Kyriaco said. “The Goleta depot will be there for those folks as an alternative.”

Chad Edison, chief deputy secretary for rail and transit at the California State Transportation Agency said the state has had a plan since 2018 to have hourly service from Goleta to Los Angeles and San Diego and bi-hourly service to San Luis Obispo. 

“We have funded a number of projects since 2018 that are starting to allow us to introduce more rail service in the corridor,” Edison said. “In addition to having a better station and a better place for the growing ridership to access the rail services here, we’re in the middle of growing from the 10 trains that serve five round-trips up to 16 and then 18 and 20 and over time.”

Edison said passengers can expect more services in the spring and that the state budget is allowing them to return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels of service. Once those services are restored, they’ll add more round-trips from San Diego to Goleta with the goal to have a eight daily round-trips by 2028. 

“We’re only running about 85% of the service that we ran pre-pandemic,” Edison said. “We believe that it’s just another year or two until everything’s back to pre-pandemic levels and above.”

The train station is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026. Train service will not be affected during construction.