Orange station (California)

The first rail service in the City of Orange was the Santa Ana, Orange & Tustin Street Railway, a 4.04-mile (6.5 km) horsecar line that began operating between Santa Ana and Orange in 1886. One year later, the Santa Ana & Orange Motor Road Company purchased the line and operated it using a steam "dummy" car and a single gasoline motorcar. In 1906, Henry Huntington acquired the company under the auspices of the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway, which later became part of the Pacific Electric Railway, and electrified the line. Passenger service over the new line, operated by Pacific Electric, began on June 8, 1914. The route also provided freight service to local citrus growers in direct competition with the Santa Fe. In 1961, Pacific Electric sold its operations to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which ultimately abandoned the line in 1964.^{[citation needed]}

The Santa Fe, through its affiliate the Southern California Railway, laid its first tracks through Orange in 1886 and established its first Orange depot in 1888.^[6] The route later became part of the railroad's Surf Line, and by 1925, 16 daily passenger trains, including the Santa Fe's San Diegan, stopped in Orange. During peak growing seasons, as many as 48 carloads of citrus fruit, olives, and walnuts were also shipped daily from the Orange depot.^{[citation needed]}

Passenger service returned^{[clarification needed]} to the station on December 6, 1993, when Amtrak's Orange County Commuter began stopping there.^[7] The Orange County Commuter became Metrolink's Orange County Line on March 28, 1994. The Inland Empire–Orange County Line began serving the station when the line opened on October 2, 1995.^[8]

On October 29, 2007, Amtrak added Orange as a stop on the Pacific Surfliner route. Initially, two morning and two evening trains stopped at the station each day. By 2010, however, the station was serving an average of only seven passengers per day.^[9] Because of low ridership, Amtrak discontinued the stop in early 2013.

Rail connections to Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, and Northern San Diego County are provided by the Metrolink regional commuter rail network. The Metrolink platform is situated adjacent to the former Santa Fe depot in the downtown Historic District, which is also home to an Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) bus station. The former Santa Fe mainline links the cities of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego via a junction north of the station.