Van Nuys, CA (VNC)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$2,238,280

Station Ridership

FY 2011

74,163

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The modern glass-and-concrete Van Nuys station, designed by LPA Architects, is an intermodal facility shared with Metrolink commuter trains, local buses and taxis. The station was opened and dedicated on December 18, 1995. A joint project of Caltrans and Amtrak, funding was provided by Caltrans with Amtrak providing construction management. Improvements for Metrolink commuters were funded by Caltrans and the city of Los Angeles. The station was updated and expanded again in 1998 to add DASH transit buses.

In 1797, Franciscan missionaries established the Mission de San Fernando in the valley on the ranch of Francisco Reyes, and El Valle de los Encinos became El Valle de San Fernando. The Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, had its inception in 1872 when Isaac Newton Van Nuys, a banker and real estate developer from New York State, built his frame house there. He had bought 60,000 acres of the 116,858 acre Rancho San Fernando in 1871. Van Nuys raised grain and invested in milling to produce flour and grain products of all kinds. It was not until February 22, 1911, that lot sales began in the new town of Van Nuys. In 1928, Mulholland’s St. Francis Dam broke and inundated the Valley and Van Nuys; it is estimated that over 400 people perished in that catastrophe.

Van Nuys was at one time the location for the Van Nuys assembly plant, a major manufacturing facility for General Motors’ Chevrolet Division. Since 1998, when the plant was dismantled, the site was converted to a shopping mall, called “The Plant.”

Van Nuys became part of Los Angeles and an archetypal 20th century middle-class American suburb; today it is a melting pot of ethnic groups and home styles, though some historic examples of early 20th century architecture are still standing.

Van Nuys Boulevard, its main street, became known from the 1950s to the 1970s as the center of teenage cruising and car culture, being celebrated in several motion pictures, including Van Nuys Boulevard. Though cruising is a thing of the past, the car culture is still visible in the many dealerships lining the boulevard’s ten-mile length as it passes from Sherman Oaks in the south to the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains in the north.

Amtrak provides both ticketing and help with baggage at this facility.

Van Nuys is served by twelve daily trains.