Van Nuys station

Van Nuys is an Amtrak and Metrolink train station in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The station is served by eleven weekday round trips on the Metrolink Ventura County Line, five daily round trips of the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, and one daily round trip of the Amtrak Coast Starlight.

Van Nuys
Pacific Surfliner train at Van Nuys in 2012
Location	7724 Van Nuys Boulevard Van Nuys, California United States
Coordinates	34°12′41″N 118°26′54″W
Owned by	State of California
Line(s)	SCRRA Ventura Subdivision[1]
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	3
Connections	Metro Local: 169, 233, 656 Metro Rapid: 744 LADOT DASH: Panorama City/Van Nuys
Construction
Parking	350 spaces
Disabled access	Yes
Architect	LPA Architects
Other information
Station code	Amtrak code: VNC
History
Opened	October 18, 1982 (CalTrain) June 26, 1988 (Amtrak)
Closed	March 1, 1983 (CalTrain)
Rebuilt	December 16, 1995 2018–2019
Previous names	Panorama City (CalTrain)
Passengers
2017	82,417[2]  2.5% (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Simi Valley toward Seattle Coast Starlight Hollywood Burbank Airport toward Los Angeles Chatsworth toward San Luis Obispo Pacific Surfliner Hollywood Burbank Airport toward Los Angeles or San Diego Preceding station Metrolink Following station Northridge toward East Ventura Ventura County Line Burbank Airport–South toward Los Angeles Union Station Future service Preceding station Metro Rail Following station Roscoe toward Sylmar/San Fernando East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor Sherman Way toward Van Nuys
Former services Preceding station CalTrain Following station Chatsworth towards Oxnard Los Angeles–Oxnard Burbank Airport towards Los Angeles Union Station Preceding station Pacific Electric Following station Whitsert towards San Fernando San Fernando discontinued 1952 Amherst towards Subway Terminal Whitsert towards Canoga Park Owensmouth discontinued 1952 Preceding station Southern Pacific Railroad Following station Raymer toward San Francisco Coast Line Burbank toward Los Angeles
Location

The station was served (as Panorama City) by the short-lived CalTrain service in 1982–83. Service was restored with the Amtrak San Diegan in 1988, and Metrolink service began in 1992.

History

The 1995-built station structure

The diagonal railway across the San Fernando Valley was built in 1904 as a cutoff for the Southern Pacific Coast Line.[3] At the time the main Van Nuys station was located further south on the Burbank branch, at the modern Van Nuys G Line station.

Panorama City station opened with the inauguration of CalTrain on October 18, 1982.[4] The short-lived service ended on March 1, 1983.[5] Amtrak service to Van Nuys (the former CalTrain station) began on June 26, 1988, when one San Diegan round trip was extended to Santa Barbara.[6] Metrolink began Ventura County Line service with a stop at Van Nuys on October 26, 1992.[7] A modern glass-and-concrete Van Nuys station building, funded by Caltrans, opened on December 18, 1995.[8]

The station originally had a single side platform serving the southern track of the two-track Ventura Subdivision.[1] (A third track to the north is part of the Union Pacific Railroad Gemco Yard.[1][9] In January 2018, Metrolink began construction of an island platform - which serves both main tracks - and a pedestrian underpass.[10] Original plans called for a second side platform instead, but the island platform design had fewer impacts.[9] The project was originally to be completed in late 2019,[11] but was not officially finished until January 2020.[12]

Future

Van Nuys is expected to be expanded in the coming years to provide more connectivity through the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles County.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority East San Fernando Light Rail Project line runs adjacent to the station and the agency is planning a stop near Keswick Street to provide an interchange between systems. A new island platform in the median of Van Nuys Boulevard is expected to open for service in 2028.[13] That line's maintenance and storage facility is additionally planned to be located nearby.

This is the northernmost station of the further planned Sepulveda Pass Transit Corridor. As of 2020 new subway or aerial platforms are planned to be built at Van Nuys for the service.

References

1. SMA Rail Consulting (April 2016). "California Passenger Rail Network Schematics" (PDF). California Department of Transportation. p. 16.
2. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2017, State of California" (PDF). Amtrak. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
3. "Coast Line History" (PDF). The Ferroequinologist. June 1984. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
4. "IT'S HERE. The start of the line". The Press-Courier. 25 October 1982. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
5. "State PUC dumps commuter train". Santa Cruz Sentinel. March 13, 1983 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Rail Passenger Development Plan: 1990 Through 1995 Fiscal Years. California Department of Transportation - Division of Mass Transportation. 1988. p. 60 – via Google Books.
7. "History of Metrolink". Southern California Regional Rail Authority. 2017.
8. "Van Nuys, CA (VNC)". Great American Stations. Amtrak.
9. "Van Nuys Station Project" (PDF). Southern California Regional Rail Authority.
10. "Van Nuys Station Project Update". Metrolink Matters. Southern California Regional Rail Authority. March 29, 2018.
11. "Van Nuys Station". Southern California Regional Rail Authority.
12. "$32 million upgrade to Van Nuys Metrolink Station touted as 'lynchpin' of future Valley transit". Los Angeles Daily News. January 16, 2020.
13. "Public comment begins on L.A. Metro's FEIS/R for LRT project between Van Nuys and San Fernando". Mass Transit. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)

External links

Media related to Van Nuys station at Wikimedia Commons

• Van Nuys, CA – Amtrak
• Van Nuys at the Metrolink website
• TrainWeb USA RailGuide: Van Nuys, CA (VNC)
• Great American Stations (Amtrak): Van Nuys, CA (VNC)