San Bernardino station question

bobyar2001 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:12 am

This webpage is over a year old, but does not paint a rosy picture of the old Santa Fe station at San Bernardino, California. As I read it, the station has been restored, but is totally inaccessible to Amtrak passengers. Is this still the case?

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/rail/depots/stops/snb.htm

More history, which says the depot is in use:

http://www.ci.san-bernardino.ca.us/abou ... _depot.asp

Melanie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:36 pm

Bob,
Station occupied by SANBAG (http://www.sanbag.ca.gov/);
NO Amtrak lobby;
NO commuter pax lobby;
NO general public access.
Exterior intact (with the exception of some signage); interior basically intact also.
Cheerio,
Melanie

Jim Lundquist · **Posted:** Mon Dec 04, 2006 7:53 pm

What public purpose was served by spending public funds on a building with no public use?

Bobk · **Posted:** Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:14 pm

It has public bathrooms

Brian Norden · **Posted:** Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:48 pm

The occupant of the former station is a governmental agency. "SANBAG" is the acronym for San Bernardino Associated Governments.

Its website (http://www.sanbag.ca.gov/) says that "San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) is the council of governments and transportation planning agency for San Bernardino County."

For information on the depot see the webpage:The Santa Fe Depot

It seems from other pages at the SANBAG site that the hope is that the rehabilitation of the depot will encourage a revival in the neighborhood. It had acquired the building along with the local rail lines in 1992 as part of the joint purchases that enabled the creation of MetroLink. After restoring the building, in 2004 SANBAG moved into offices on the second floor where the railroad division officers were once located. According to the website MetroLink was expected to move a supervisor and training rooms into office space.

It seems that the former baggage room was to become a community room; however no mention is made of use of the former waiting room.

bobyar2001 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:55 pm

If this is all true, it seems a great mis-appropriation of resources and (TEA?) funds. It seems ridiculous that a ton of money would be spent restoring a train station, yet those who ride the trains must stay out in the rain while waiting for them. Is anyone working to correct the situation? Any editorials in local papers? This would seem to be raw meat for any carnivorous newspaper editor.