All aboard!

After years of anticipation, the city of Goleta is building a new Train Depot at 27 S. La Patera Lane.

The city will build a full-service train station that will include a community room, 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. 

“This project seeks to serve as essentially a gateway project, to welcome people who are coming to visit Goleta or welcome people back who live here,” said Jaime Valdez, assistant city manager. “The whole premise behind the funding of this is largely from the state to reduce greenhouse gasses.”

This is Goleta’s first new construction building project; the city had previously only taken on renovation projects and roadway construction, according to Valdez. 

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 this project to the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.

The city of Goleta purchased the site, formerly operated by Direct Relief, for nearly $7 million in 2018. The existing building will be demolished, and the footprint will be reduced from 40,000 square feet to about 8,500 square feet.

The property is located along the LOSSAN (Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency) rail corridor.

“This is really community inspired; a lot of input came in, not just from our city council, but from the community,” Valdez said. “We could have probably had it built by now if we just decided that we were going to design the way we want and have no input, but that wouldn’t really be a project that would be representative of a gateway project that you would want for the city.”

The goal is to produce more train ridership from commuters, UC Santa Barbara students, and people coming from out of town to the airport. 

From Oct. 1 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, the total number of boardings and people disembarking at the Goleta train station was 69,177. For the current federal fiscal year, the total number of boardings and people disembarking is 69,624, according to Jason Jewell, managing director of LOSSAN rail.

“We want to increase service, so having more runs coming to the Santa Barbara and Goleta area will give more opportunity for more ridership,” said Marjie Kirn, executive director of Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG). 

There are plans to add a morning run from Moorpark to Goleta, increase rides for people commuting from Ventura, and expand rides heading north, along with constructing sidings that will allow trains to safely pass each other.

“Normally, it’s just a one-way track, and so anyone going north or south, they have to wait for the other train to pass,” Kirn said.

The new sidings would allow passing opportunities that don’t currently exist.

Right now Goleta serves as the end of the line for many trains heading north from San Diego and Los Angeles, but the new facility could support new opportunities. 

“Because of this facility’s growth and having some additional infrastructure installed, there’ll be opportunity to have other trains there meeting the trains coming from the south to head north into San Luis Obispo,” said Aaron Bonfilio, director of multimodal programs at SBCAG. 

Bonfilio said Caltrans is considering implementing zero-emission trains that would come from Los Angeles Union Station into Goleta and then travel from Goleta farther north into San Luis Obispo, making the Goleta train stop more of a transportation hub. 

“Right now … it really just serves as a small parking lot with a turnaround for people to be dropped off and then not much else,” Bonfilio said. “Having a larger facility will ensure that people who are waiting for trains, who are meeting others who are coming in on the train, have some place to rest.”

Construction officially began Sept. 3, and the city will be celebrating with a groundbreaking at 10 a.m. Thursday. Construction is expected to finish by summer 2026.