New Courthouse Trolley Station Opens in San Diego

On Sunday, April 29, San Diego Metropolitan Transit System passengers started boarding the first new Trolley station since 2005 — the Courthouse Station in downtown San Diego. Officials gathered at a dedication ceremony on Friday to celebrate the new station. 

The Courthouse Station is the new downtown terminus for the Orange Line, which runs from El Cajon to downtown San Diego and serves approximately nine million passengers annually.

“The Courthouse Station will provide downtown’s workforce, residents, and visitors convenient Trolley access just steps away from the new San Diego Superior Court Building,” said MTS Board Chair Georgette Gómez. “There are more than 44,500 jobs within a ½ mile walk, making it a highly utilized station.”    

The Orange Line previously terminated a few blocks west at Santa Fe Depot and for a brief time at America Plaza. The Courthouse Station is needed to accommodate future growth of the Trolley system when the Mid-Coast Trolley extension begins operations in 2021. On weekdays, the first train departs the station at 5:30 a.m. and the last train departs at 11:45 p.m., with trains departing every 15 minutes for most of the day. As a result of adding the Courthouse Station to the system, the Trolley schedule on all three lines will change for the first time in six years. 

The Courthouse Station is located on the south side of C Street, between State and Union streets. It will provide convenient Trolley access for downtown’s growing community, and is adjacent to the new 22-story $555 million State Superior Court Building that will have 1.2 million people passing through its doors each year.

The Courthouse Station will have all of the features MTS passengers experience at other stations, including:

• Digital next-train arrival displays
• Ticket vending machines
• New shelters
• New benches
• ADA accessible sidewalks and ramps
• Security cameras to monitor activity around station
• On-site security personnel
• Enhanced lighting features in and around the station

To help pay for construction, MTS was awarded a $31.9 million competitive grant from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP). MTS’ application was one of only 14 projects in the state funded by the State of California’s 2015 and 2016 cap-and-trade budget. The grant funding is also being used to purchase eight new light rail vehicles to increase capacity on the Trolley system.