All Aboard! Join Us in Rediscovering Orange County, One Station at a Time
- Joel Beers
- Oct 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 6
This introductory story launches Culture OC’s new series exploring Metrolink’s Orange County Line –and what makes each stop a destination.
As Metrolink pivots from commuter service to cultural connector, its Orange County Line offers a new way to experience the region – not just as a way through it, but as a way into it. Over the next several weeks, Culture OC will explore what makes each stop along this historic route worth visiting, from lively downtowns to hidden corners rich in character.
A Little Background
As 2019 wound down, Metrolink’s Orange County Line – opened in 1994 with five O.C. stops along the Los Angeles-to-Oceanside route – was one of the two busiest lines on the nation’s eighth-largest commuter rail system. Average weekday ridership topped 10,000, and the Orange County portion had expanded to 11 stations, with Fullerton, Irvine, and Tustin ranking among the busiest of the system’s 68 stops.
Then the pandemic hit. Between April and June 2020, average weekday ridership plummeted to 734. Weekend ridership, which had hovered around 50,000 for the two three-month quarters pre-pandemic, cratered to just 6,500.
The climb back has been slow. This year, average daily ridership finally crept past 5,000, still less than half its 2019 level. But weekend ridership tells a different story: it rebounded far faster, quadrupling to 25,000 by mid-2021 and nearly reaching 50,000 over the same period in 2022.
That pattern played out systemwide. Fewer commuters were riding during the week, but plenty of people were hopping aboard on weekends.
Metrolink took notice. In response, it began reimagining itself as a regional rail network rather than a commuter line. In October 2024, it launched the largest expansion in its history: adding more midday and late-night trains, boosting weekend service, improving transfers between its seven lines, and standardizing departures to leave at regular intervals past the hour. The goal: to make the system more useful for students, tourists and nontraditional workers – and to get riders thinking of its stations not just as launchpads, but as destinations themselves, gateways to the communities surrounding them.
No line embodies that shift more than the Orange County Line, which added seven weekday trains, including one that now departs Los Angeles’ Union Station at 10 p.m.
PHOTO 1: The first passenger stop on the first railroad to nose its way into what would eventually be Orange County, the Southern Pacific in 1874, was a tiny passenger shelter originally named Almond, located in present-day Buena Park where Orangethorpe Avenue crosses Dale Street. PHOTO 2: Pacific Electric "Red Car" crossing Euclid Avenue in Garden Grove on way to Santa Ana. Photos courtesy of Orange County Archives
Stations as Gateways
With the county now easier to traverse by rail – at least along a route that mostly traces the 5 Freeway – the question becomes: What’s worth stopping for?
Over the coming weeks, Culture OC will explore just that. Each story will spotlight one or two stations: the architecturally striking (Santa Ana, Anaheim), those at the heart of lively downtowns (Fullerton, Orange), and ones where the gems can be more difficult to find. We’ll look at history, design and neighborhood character – and how to get beyond the platforms, whether by foot, bus, or how to hop to spots like Disneyland, John Wayne Airport or the coast.
But what won’t be included are many of the county’s major arts or cultural landmarks, unless it’s relaying how to get there via alternate transportation. That’s because the Orange County Line follows the same route Amtrak inherited in 1971 – the old Santa Fe Railroad Surf Line, completed in 1888 to link Los Angeles and San Diego. It entered present-day O.C. in what’s now northwestern Buena Park, ran east to Fullerton, jiggled south to connect the county’s first three incorporated cities (Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana), then curved through the Irvine Ranch, Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel before reaching San Juan Capistrano and exiting the county through San Clemente.
By the time Amtrak took over in 1971, most of those original stations were gone. But the survivors – Fullerton, Santa Ana, San Juan Capistrano, and the new ones built after the county began seriously thinking of joining Metrolink in the 1980s, all followed that same corridor, roughly paralleling Interstate 5.
PHOTO 1: Though today's passenger rail service in Orange County is mainly limited to the Interstate 5 corridor, 100 years ago, lines connected most communities in the western part of the county. In 1925, Pacific Electric ran on approximately 1,000 miles of track in Southern California. A station in what would become the city of Stanton opened in 1905 along the Los Angeles to Santa Route, and a second line connected it to Huntington Beach to the South. PHOTO 2: By 1920, when this photo was taken in Santa Ana on West Fourth Street, Pacific Electric red cars covered more than 1,000 miles in Southern California, with more than 70 stops in Orange County. By 1950, regular passenger service on its lined had ended. Photos courtesy of Orange County Archives
100-Year-Old Template
In other words, the modern system retraces a path set more than a century ago with every O.C. station sitting beside or east of the 5, not touching the coast until San Clemente. The Sante Fe route wasn’t the only passenger line in the county; but it’s the one that survived. As late as 1930, railways traversed most of the county, connecting stations from Seal Beach to Balboa and Cypress to Huntington Beach. They fueled the growth of those communities as well as future cities like Westminster and Costa Mesa.
But passenger service began to decline in the 1930s and had all but disappeared by the time of Orange County’s post-World War II boom. Cars, highways and freeways rendered proximity to rail irrelevant; houses, college campuses, amusement parks and theaters could be built or formed miles from any railroad stop.
The result: Most of the county’s cultural treasures, particularly those built or formed after 1950, lie far from the tracks.
So, while Metrolink’s OC Line stations are convenient if you’re bound for destinations that are on the route, like Angel Stadium, the Grove of Anaheim, Old Towne Orange and the Hilbert Museum, downtown San Juan Capistrano or Casa Romantica. But head west of the 5, and you’ll need alternate transportation or a sturdy pair of shoes. The Segerstrom Center and South Coast Repertory are 6 miles from the nearest station; the Muzeo, 4; the Irvine Barclay, 5 to 6; Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, 3 to 6; Soka Performing Arts Center, 5 to 7; Little Saigon, 7; Little Arabia, 10.
And the beaches? Apart from San Clemente, none are within four miles of a station. Laguna Beach is 10 miles away, Newport 12, Huntington Beach 15.
Sure, there are buses that will, eventually, get you where you want to be, as well as rideshare if you enjoy surge pricing for sport, but isn’t the whole point of the train to avoid cars altogether?
Fortunately, at most of the 11 local stations on the OC Line, there are things worth seeing or doing within a reasonable walking distance. Some, like Anaheim and Santa Ana, are architectural showpieces. Others anchor lively downtowns filled with restaurants, nightlife, historic character and groovy shops. And there are a few others that might require a bit more digging to uncover what makes them interesting.
But you can look at this series as a shovel to help you unearth the nuggets when you step off the train. And the first ground we’ll hit, next week, will be the Buena Park Metrolink Station. It’s the first local stop on the OC Line and is located in the same city where the first passenger train ever stopped in present-day Orange County – and one where no train would stop for some 80 years.
