Riverside–Downtown station


The Joseph Tavaglione Riverside Downtown Station is a train station in Riverside, California, United States that opened in 1993. It is served by one Amtrak intercity rail line and three Metrolink commuter rail lines, as well as Riverside Transit Agency and Omnitrans buses and Amtrak Thruway, Megabus, and Flixbus coach service. The station is owned by the Riverside County Transportation Commission, and is referred to as Riverside by Amtrak and as Riverside–Downtown by Metrolink.

History

The current station opened for Metrolink Riverside Line service on June 14, 1993. The original Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway depot, closed on May 15, 1968, when the Grand Canyon was re-routed via Pasadena to replace the discontinued Chief. Inland Empire–Orange County Line service began on October 2, 1995; Riverside was the terminus of that line until the following year when the extension to San Bernardino opened. Amtrak's Southwest Chief began stopping at Riverside in April 2002. Metrolink's 91/Perris Valley Line, began operating on May 6, 2002. Again, Riverside was the terminus until the Perris Valley Line extension opened in 2016.
In December 2012, the station was renamed after Joseph Tavaglione, a local businessman and chair of the California Transportation Commission.

Current services

The Southwest Chief provides one train per day in each direction through the station, one to Los Angeles and one to Chicago, which boards from the station's South platform. In conjunction with the California Department of Transportation, Amtrak California also provides two Thruway Motorcoach routes: to Bakersfield, with connections to the San Joaquins for the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento; and to Fullerton, with connections to the Pacific Surfliner for San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.
Megabus began providing service from the station to the South Strip Transfer Center in Las Vegas on December 12, 2012.
The station is a hub for Metrolink commuter rail, with three lines serving the station on weekdays, and two on weekends. Trains traveling to and from Orange County board from the South platform, which is accessible via a bridge over the tracks. All weekend trains board on the South platform, across the bridge.
No ticketing agents are on site. Tickets for Metrolink may be purchased from the ticket vending machines located on all platforms or by using the Metrolink App for iOS or Android for all types and multiple tickets using a single mobile device for all passengers in a group. All Amtrak services require advanced reservations, but tickets can be picked up from Metrolink's ticket machines once reservations have been made either online or via telephone. Megabus reservations can only be made on their website.
The Riverside Transit Agency provides free connecting transit service to Metrolink passengers at the station including the agency's CommuterLink express bus system, providing connections to Temecula, Banning and Hemet. The SunLine transit 220 bus provides service to UCR, Moreno valley, Beaumont, Cabazon and Palm Desert.

Platforms and tracks