Santa_Rosa_Downtown_station

Santa Rosa Downtown station

Santa Rosa Downtown station

Railway station in Santa Rosa, California, U.S.

Santa Rosa Downtown station (known as Santa Rosa–Railroad Square during planning) is a Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit train station in Santa Rosa. It opened to SMART preview service on July 1, 2017;[2] full commuter service commenced on August 25, 2017. It is located west of Wilson Street between 4th and 5th Streets, across the U.S. Route 101 freeway from downtown at the site of the ex-Northwestern Pacific Railroad station building. The station is the focal point of the Railroad Square Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places historic district designated in 1979.

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History

Postcard of a Northwestern Pacific Railroad train at the Santa Rosa station in 1911

The original Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP) Depot was built in 1903. Surviving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the station was eventually served by ten trains a day. Increased automobile ownership and highway construction led to decline of rail use in Sonoma County, thus leading to disuse of the facility as a passenger terminal[5] around 1958. Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt featured scenes filmed at the original NWP depot.[6] Passenger service ended after November 10, 1958.[7]

In 2008, the Handcar Regatta, a handcar race and arts festival, was put on in the Square utilizing the old tracks. The event continued annually between 2008 and 2011, but was not able to continue because of increased construction associated with the future SMART rail service.[8]

References

  1. [1]
    SMA Rail Consulting (April 2016). "California Passenger Rail Network Schematics" (PDF). California Department of Transportation. p. 1.
  2. [2]
    "SMART Public Preview Rides". SMART. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  3. [3]
    "Northwestern Pacific Railroad Timetable". Northwestern Pacific Railroad Network. Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  4. [4]
    Time Table 36 (PDF). Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad Company. September 4, 1927.
  5. [5]
    "A History of Railroad Square". Historic Railroad Square Association. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  6. [6]
    Fimrite, Peter (18 April 2008). "Windsor rebuilds depot sans train". San Francisco Gate. Hears Communications. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  7. [7]
    "Train makes last run". San Francisco Examiner. November 11, 1958. p. 13. Retrieved 12 September 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Free access icon
  8. [8]
    Smith, Chris (15 September 2011). "Popular Handcar Regatta may be derailed". The Press Democrat. Sonoma Media Investments. Retrieved 2 February 2019.

Media related to Santa Rosa Downtown station at Wikimedia Commons


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