Hi-Tech & History: Anaheim and Orange Metrolink Stations Exhibit Vastly Different Vibes
- Joel Beers
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Two stations, two worlds – Anaheim’s soaring, high-tech hub still waits for a neighborhood, while Orange’s modest depot thrives amid Old Town’s charm.
This story is a part of our series OC by Metrolink, discovering what what makes each stop worth the stop.
Both Anaheim and Orange share passenger rail histories that stretch back to the county’s earliest days. But other than that historical link, their contemporary Metrolink stations couldn’t be more different. Anaheim’s is part of a transit hub encircling a sleek, towering architectural marvel, but with very little inside or surrounding it – for now. Orange’s features a nearly 100-year-old depot that isn’t even used by the train and borders one of the county’s oldest and most well-preserved downtowns.
Anaheim: From terminus to modern marvel
Anaheim was the terminus for the first railroad to reach what’s now Orange County – the Southern Pacific line in 1875 – but it wasn’t meant to be. The line, which began in Los Angeles, was supposed to continue to San Diego. A long-simmering feud between Collis P. Huntington, one of the Big Four rail tycoons who dominated early railway construction in California, and rancher James Irvine, reportedly dating back to a sea voyage they shared during the Gold Rush, led Irvine to block the Southern Pacific route south through his land. (The Santa Fe Railway finally made the San Diego connection in 1887.)
Early depots, including one near today’s Lincoln Avenue and Atchison Street, served passengers for decades. In 1984, a new Amtrak station opened beside Anaheim Stadium (to be called Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2003) – complete with a roof that was accidentally built upside down. But some 20 years later, the city would go all in with its next station, beginning the planning for a new station to be built next door: the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, ARTIC, which opened in December 2014.
Views of the exterior of the ARTIC station. PHOTO 1: Expansive glass windows covering the building flood Anaheim's ARTIC station with sunlight. PHOTO 2: The station glows with colorful lights at night. PHOTO 3: The Santa Ana River Trail and Angel Stadium are each located in easy walking distance of Anaheim's ARTIC Station. Photos by Joel Beers, Culture OC
a Station in search of a neighborhood
Inspired by classic stations like New York’s Penn, the 67,000-square-foot building is a sweeping shell of glass and steel with a 120-foot arch and lattice of crisscrossing ribs, which create a vast, column-free interior. By day the enormous glass windows flood the three-story structure interior with sunlight; by night its 1,300 multicolored lights dazzle onlookers from the 57 freeway.
Described as everything from a grey cocoon topped by billowing white pillows to a neon half-armadillo, it has long had it critics, with some questioning the nearly $200 million price tag and others the rather ambitious claim supporters had that it would result in 10,000 passengers a day (today, it averages fewer than 300 average Metrolink weekday riders, making it one of the least busiest stations on the O.C. Line and the entire Metrolink system).
Though it’s a hub for Metrolink, Amtrak, Greyhound, local buses and shuttles, and it has live people at information desks (a rarity at O.C. stations) there’s very little to do inside the three-story cavernous station other than the long walk to get from parking or buses to the trains. There’s mall food at the tiny Auntie Anne’s and Pinkberry kiosk, and a small Anaheim Public Library kiosk with a book drop (really), plus a holographic art installation by Mikyoung Kim. Otherwise, the building itself is the draw, little else to see inside or around it.
Inside the depot. PHOTO 1: Along with serving as a Metrolink stop, ARTIC also staffs Amtrak and local bus ticket windows, and is one of few stations in the county with live personnel. PHOTO 2: A library book drop and book vending machine where you scan your library card to borrow your books and go. PHOTO 3: Anaheim's ARTIC Station is a sweeping glass and steel shell that is crowned by a 120-foot arch at its main entrance. Photos by Joel Beers, Culture OC
The Waiting Game
Anaheim has floated countless ideas to integrate the station, or the land around it, into larger rail systems. The OCTA’s CenterLine project – a proposed 30-mile light rail connecting Cal State Fullerton, South Coast Metro, John Wayne Airport and the Irvine Spectrum – could have been one. And then there was talk of a Las Vegas high-speed line, a Disneyland streetcar and redevelopment of the stadium parking lot. Currently, it’s the projected O.C. stop on California’s controversial high-speed bullet train, which is mired in funding issues and federal opposition; and there are hopes that it might eventually link with the OCTA’s electric-powered OC Streetcar, a 4.2-mile line connecting downtown Santa Ana to Garden Grove, expected to open next year.
OC Vibe and What’s Next
The Next Big Thing seems like the most attainable: OC Vibe, a $4 billion, 100-acre development promoted as a tourism and entertainment district along the lines of LA Live. Construction is underway, with a near-complete buildout timed for the 2028 Summer Olympics, when the Honda Center hosts indoor volleyball. The first phase, opening late 2026, includes parking structures, a 5,700-seat concert hall, restaurants, bars and amenities. Later phases promise hotels, retail, gardens, plazas, trails and a $1 billion renovation of the Honda Center.
Anaheim also plans to spend $200 million and turn 100 acres along the Santa Ana River into the OC River Walk, featuring sidewalks, bridges and landscaped open spaces.
What's nearby? PHOTO 1: From the pedestrian bridge leading from Anaheim's ARTIC station to the Metrolink platform, viewers can see the trains, Angel Stadium and traffic on the 57 freeway. PHOTO 2: The City National Grove of Anaheim is one of the three anchor destinations around the Anaheim ARTIC station. PHOTO 3: The south entrance of the Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks. The building will receive a nearly $1 billion upgrade as part of the OC Vibe project around Anaheim's ARTIC station. PHOTO 4: Though construction has begun on the massive OC Vibe development around Anaheim's ARTIC station, currently the closest visual is found in this rendering on the station's second floor. Photos by Joel Beers, Culture OC
Surrounding environs
But for now, the area around the train station, with the notable exceptions of the high-profile sports and concert venues of Angel Stadium, the Grove of Anaheim and the Honda Center, is mostly apartments, offices and industrial parks with a few restaurants on the south side of Katella and a cluster of chain restaurants a half-mile west. About a mile east is Stadium Promenade, anchored by a theater cineplex and featuring higher-end restaurants. For local character, a bit farther down Katella is Danny K’s billiards and sports bar.
But until OC Vibe opens, that’s about it for dining, arts or culture – besides some local history markers on the Santa Ana River just east. While buses provide easy access to Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center, about three miles away, and the Anaheim Packing District and downtown, four miles to the north, the stunning architectural marvel, 20 years after initially proposed and 10 years after completion, still feels like it’s waiting for something.
Orange: Old-school charm in a vibrant downtown
If Anaheim’s station is a gleaming modern marvel, but relatively isolated from the neighborhood around it, Orange’s feels like its reverse-mirror image. The depot itself is old-school, with a lineage stretching back to 1888. It was replaced with a new, Mediterranean Revival-style depot in 1938, closed in 1971, and re-opened in 1993. The building is fairly spartan – much of its ornamentation and interior furnishings were removed in the 1938 rebuild or relocated when the depot shuttered. Today, it has no staff or waiting room, functioning instead as a restaurant, the Streamliner Cafe. However, there’s a quite fitting touch outside the old depot: a few real live orange trees.
But while the station is modest, the surrounding neighborhood is something else entirely. Just a few blocks away lies Orange Plaza, the heart of Old Town Orange, and it’s also adjacent to the picturesque campus of Chapman University, as well as one of the county’s major art spaces: the Hilbert Museum of California Art.
PHOTO 1: Vintage clothing stores and boutiques, along with antique malls, line the streets radiating from the Orange Plaza. PHOTO 2: The three antique malls in Old Towne Orange are a cornucopia for collectors and the curious. PHOTO 3: A vintage-inspired sign near the Metrolink station welcomes visitor to Old Town Orange. PHOTO 4: Originally a movie and vaudeville theater that opened in 1929, and once speculated as a potential site for the Pasadena Playhouse, the building on the northwest corner of Glassell street and Maple avenue has been home to the Son Light Christian Center since 1976. Photos by Joel Beers, Culture OC
Blend of new and old
The Orange Circle anchors the area, a roundabout that has served as the literal heart of the historic district since 1888. It hosts the International Street Fair each year, as well as Chapman University’s infamous unsanctioned undie run. Around it, Old Town hums with restaurants, boutiques and antique shops, the largest concentration north and south on Glassell Street.
Many buildings retain their original facades, a reminder of the city’s past. Long-time mainstays like Watson’s Soda Fountain and Cafe (opened 1899, closed 2022) and the Cuban-Spanish Felix Continental Café (closed 2024 after 45 years) are gone, but the area remains vibrant with a balance of contemporary restaurants and old-school eateries.
The streets radiating from the Plaza are packed with a mix of cafés, craft cocktail bars, casual bistros, diners and ethnic eateries. From artisanal coffee and European cafes to beer shrines serving local micro-brews and one of Orange County’s 20 starred Michelin Restaurants, Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen, gourmands will not be bored.
Starbucks Coffee, which was a mainstay at 44 Plaza Square since 2007, closed its doors in September. The reason was a company-wide restructuring and shuttering of underperforming stores. Some may remember that this Starbucks used to be one of the original Diedrich’s cafes, and before that, it was the home of the Orange Daily News – that historic sign still hangs on at the top of the building.
The sidewalks tend to roll up relatively early at most shops and eateries, but with three longtime bars open until the wee hours, Paul’s Cocktails, founded in 1942, O’Hara’s Pub (1972) and District Lounge (2004) there’s always some activity.
Old Town Orange is also a treasure trove for vintage and antique lovers. Glassell Street and the surrounding blocks are lined with boutiques, vintage clothing stores and three sprawling antique malls, each a warren of individual vendors selling everything from retro furniture to rare collectibles.
Art on the Chapman University campus. PHOTO 1: A 1996 visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which included a section of the Berlin Wall, by former university president James L. Doti, inspired him to secure a piece for the campus' Liberty Plaza. PHOTO 2: Attallah Piazza is a central meeting stop for students on the Chapman University campus. The fountain, reminiscent of a Neolithic stone ring, anchors the plaza as a symbol of Chapman’s four educational pillars – intellectual, physical, social and spiritual. PHOTOS 3 & 4: Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln. More than 40 busts and statues of historical leaders, artists and local figures are located on Chapman University's campus. Photos by Joel Beers, Culture OC
Art and culture
A short walk from the plaza brings on the culture. Chapman University, founded as Hesperian College in 1861 in Woodland, California and moved to Orange in 1954, is dotted with public art, including a section of the Berlin Wall and an interesting mix of busts of historic figures, ranging from Mahatma Gandhi and Ayn Rand to Ethel Merman and Mozart, offering a tangible connection to history and global culture. The campus regularly hosts lectures, theater productions, student art exhibitions and music performances, many open to the public.
Nearby, the Hilbert Museum of California Art showcases a remarkable collection of California narrative art, and last year expanded from 7,500-square feet to 22,000-square feet, its 22 galleries constantly rotating the 5,000-piece museum collection.
Address: 2626 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim
Opened: Dec. 6, 2014
Cost: $199.68 million
Parking: More than 1,000 free parking spaces; overnight parking allowed with registration
Hours: 6 a.m.-midnight
Ridership: 255 average weekday Metrolink boardings; 223 weekday Amtrak boardings.
Amenities: Bike racks and lockers, public restrooms, expanded ticketing and information office; indoor waiting area, dining, vending machines, library book drop, information booth with in-person assistance, security guards on-site, video surveillance system.
Route: Fifth stop on the OC Line, which runs from Los Angeles Union Station to Oceanside; also part of Amtrak Pacific Surfliner line, which runs from San Diego to San Luis Obispo.
Metrolink Train Schedule*
Weekdays: 26 trains. First southbound train (from Los Angeles) arrives 6:25 a.m.; last southbound train arrives 10:25 p.m. First northbound train arrives 5:36 a.m.; final northbound train arrives 8:36 p.m.
Weekends: Eight trains. First southbound train arrives 9:24 a.m.; last southbound train arrives at 5:12 p.m. First northbound train arrives 9:45 a.m.; last northbound train arrives 6:46 p.m.
Amtrak*: 12 southbound trains daily, departing between 6:48 a.m. and 10:48 p.m.; 12 northbound trains daily, departing between 6:08 a.m. and 11:06 p.m.
Bus Connections*: OCTA, Anaheim Resort Transportation, Greyhound, Megabus, Flixbus. OCTA routes 50, 53, 553
*subject to change
Address: 100 N. Atchison St.
Opened: 1888, rebuilt 1938, 1993
Parking: 825 spaces, overnight parking with 72-hour maximum limit.
Ridership: 337 average weekday riders
Amenities: Bike racks and lockers, public restrooms, restaurant, public phones.
Route: Sixth stop on the OC Line, which runs from Los Angeles Union Station to Oceanside; also part of Inland Empire-Orange County line, which runs from Oceanside to San Bernardino.
Metrolink Train Schedule*
Weekdays: 26 trains. First southbound train (from Los Angeles) arrives 6:25 a.m.; last southbound train arrives 10:30 p.m. First northbound train arrives 5:31 a.m.; final northbound train arrives 8:31 p.m.
Weekends: 12 trains. First southbound train arrives 9:29 a.m.; last southbound train arrives 5:17 p.m. First northbound train arrives 9:40 a.m.; last northbound train arrives 7:42 p.m.
Amtrak*: none
*subject to change
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