Redding, CA (RDD)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$854,647

Station Ridership

FY 2011

11,440

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The stone and stucco Redding station was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SPRR) in 1923. This structure is the second depot that Redding has had; the first was located across the tracks.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, in 2011 the Redding station received a new wheelchair lift and enclosure and an improved access path from parking to the station sidewalk, at an estimated cost of $35,000.

Redding is situated along the former Siskiyou Trail, an ancient trade route leading from California’s Central Valley near San Francisco up through Oregon’s Willamette valley toward modern-day Portland. It was likely first used by non-Native Americans in the 1820s, as hunters and trappers working for the Hudson Bay Company traveled the rivers of Oregon and Northern California. Redding was founded by Pearson B. Reading, an early California pioneer who received a Mexican land grant in 1844 for the area now occupied by Redding and Cottonwood, along the Sacramento River. This was, at the time, the northernmost non-native settlement in California.

The California and Oregon Railroad established a temporary end-of-line terminal and supply center in Shasta County, known simply as the Railroad Reservation, in an area that was then called Poverty Flats. The town grew up around it, and the railroad called the stop Redding, after its first railroad land agent, Benjamin B. Redding. However, Shasta County residents felt it should have been named for Pearson Reading, and the name was changed in 1874. Confusion resulted from the similarity of names, and railroad officials and the post office refused to change, so the return of the original spelling was legislated in 1880.

Today, all that remains of the original Railroad Reservation in Redding is the Wells Fargo Building in Redding, also known as the SPRR Freight Station, which is the oldest building in the city.

Redding incorporated in 1887 and by 1910, supported a mineral extraction industry, principally copper and iron, which also created a significant amount of pollution. This also damaged local agriculture, contributing to the town’s depopulation during the 1920s. In the 1930s, and with the completion of the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento in 1945, the area began to prosper again. Lake Shasta, the resulting reservoir, is the third largest in California, after Lake Tahoe and the Salton Sea. At its deepest, Lake Shasta reaches 517 feet, and covers the former town of Kennett as well as tunnels and previous right of way of the SPRR, parts of which can be seen when the water level is low. The lake is also popular for boating, water skiing, camping, house boating and fishing.

Redding, whose summers are the hottest north of the 40th parallel, is also a few miles northwest of Lassen Volcanic National park, centered around Lassen Peak, the southernmost in the Cascade Range. The area surrounding Lassen Peak is active, having boiling mud pots, stinking fumaroles and churning hot springs.

Amtrak does not provide ticketing or baggage services at this facility.

Redding is served by two daily trains.