Martinez, CA (MTZ)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$9,922,253

Station Ridership

FY 2011

446,507

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The new station in Martinez was built in 2001. The 12-year construction project cost $31 million, paid for by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission, Union Pacific Railroad, the Federal Highway Administration and the Bay Area Quality Management District. This intermodal facility features architecture reminiscent of old fashioned train stations with high ceilings and canopied benches. There is a balcony overlooking the three tracks and an 800-foot platform. The station provides parking for 160 vehicles and has bicycle lockers, ten bus bays, carpool and vanpool lots and provides a shuttle to the Martinez waterfront and downtown. The previous station, built in 1876, could not handle the amount of passengers using the station. Along with constructing the station itself, the project included the building of a mini-park, a walking trail and a flood control and restoration project along Alhambra Creek.

In 2002, the design of the Martinez station was awarded the Merit Award for Intermodal Transportation Facilities in Excellence in Highway Design Awards.

The station also houses the Martinez Visitors’ Center, operated by the Martinez Chamber of Commerce from one end of the facility at 603 Marina Vista Avenue. In the fall of 2009, the Chamber applied to the city council for funding for an update of the Visitors’ Center, which then budgeted $47,500 per year for two years for this project. Completion is expected in June of 2011.

In 2003, the city of Martinez constructed a memorial to those who died in the 9/11 attacks. The September 11 Memorial includes two pieces of steel girder from the World Trade Center, and stands close to the station, just outside the Visitors’ Center.

Martinez, located in the Alhambra Valley, was originally home to the Karkines Indians. In 1824, a land grant, including the Alhambra Valley, was given to Don Ygnacio Martinez, the Spanish governor of the area. The grant was a gift from the Mexican government thanking Martinez for his service in the Mexican army.

In 1847, Dr. Robert Semple of Kentucky, a lieutenant in California's Bear Flag Revolt, began a ferry service across the Carquinez Strait between Benicia and Martinez. The ferry service catered to participants in the Gold Rush, as it was one of the only ways from San Francisco to the gold fields. Colonel M. Smith, seeing that business with gold miners and suppliers was beneficial, made an agreement with the family of Ygnacio Martinez to establish a town site at the ferry crossing. In 1851, the California Legislature named Martinez as the county seat and it was incorporated in 1876. Agriculture was the major economic business of Martinez and was aided by the arrival of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1877. Martinez became a stop on the transcontinental route and a transfer point between the Shasta and Coastal routes.

Martinez is the birth place of Joe DiMaggio and the last home of John Muir, the famous naturalist and conservationist who, in the 1890s, was instrumental in the creation of Yosemite National Park and the establishment of the Sierra Club. This city is also said to the birthplace of the Martini drink.

The Martinez facility has a waiting room and is staffed by an Amtrak employee, and is served by 36 daily trains. The San Joaquins and the Capitol Corridor are primarily financed through funds made available by the California Department of Transportation.