Santa Barbara, CA (SBA)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$8,919,726

Station Ridership

FY 2011

317,617

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The Santa Barbara station was constructed in the Spanish Mission Revival in 1902 for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The most recent reconstruction and renovation of the historic Santa Barbara station was completed in 2000. The ticket office has been restored to its original grandeur; plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems have been updated, and seating areas have been restored. In addition, the parking lots and the adjacent Railway Express Agency building were redone.

This area on the south coast of California had been inhabited for thousands of years before the Spanish first anchored in the Santa Barbara channel in 1542. Sebastian Vizcaino named the region out of gratitude for surviving a violent storm in the same channel on December 3, 1602, the eve of the feast of Saint Barbara. However, the first permanent European settlers were Spanish missionaries and soldiers led by Felipe de Neve, accompanied by Father Junípero Serra, who arrived in 1782 and built the Presidio and Mission. The Mission Santa Barbara was dedicated on December 4, 1786. However, a powerful earthquake and tsunami, one of the strongest in California history, destroyed the Mission and the town in 1812. Following that disaster, the Mission fathers rebuilt upon a grander scale, and this complex survives today as the best-preserved of the California Missions.

Santa Barbara was held briefly by the Mexican government until John C. Fremont claimed it during the Mexican-American War in 1846. Surveyor Salisbury Haley designed the famously misaligned street grid and set up the town in 1851. American settlers came with the Gold Rush, in a violent and lawless period until the Vigilance Committee from San Luis Obispo drove them out. Following the gold rush and rancho era, writer Charles Nordhoff promoted the town as a health resort and destination for well-to-do travelers in the 1870s and onward.

Santa Barbara also housed the world’s largest movie studio during the era of silent film. Flying A Studios operated on two city blocks between 1910 and 1922, until the film industry outgrew the area and moved to Hollywood. Flying A and other local studios produced approximately 1,200 films during their time in the city, of which about 100 survive.

During World War II, Santa Barbara was home to a Marine base at the site of the present-day University of California at Santa Barbara; a Navy installation in the harbor; was close to the Army’s Camp Cook (today Vandenberg Air Force Base). It was home to a hospital for treating military personnel wounded in the Pacific theater. On February 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine emerged offshore and lobbed 16 shells at the Elwood Oil Field, about 10 miles west of the city. In the only direct attack on the U.S. mainland during the entire war –and the first wartime attack by a foreign power on the U.S. since the War of 1812 –the gunners were terrible marksmen. Only about $500 in damage resulted to a catwalk.

The architectural image of Santa Barbara is the Spanish Colonial Revival style adopted by city leaders in 1925. Domestic architecture is predominantly California bungalows from the early 20th century, with many original Victorian and Spanish style homes. Now a year-round tourist destination renowned for its fair weather, downtown beaches and Spanish architecture, the city is known for its wooing of “clean” industry, environmental vigilance and resistance to uncontrolled growth that afflicted much of the South Coast.

Amtrak provides ticketing and baggage services at this facility.

Santa Barbara is served by twelve daily trains.