page_title: Pasadena, California
section_title: Trains
hierarchical_section_title: Pasadena, California / Transportation / Trains
caption_attribution_description: A photochrom postcard published by the Detroit Photographic Company.
context_page_description: Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, 11 miles northeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. With its substantial downtown area, observers consider it as either a suburb of nearby Los Angeles, or as a significant urban center in its own right.
  Its population was 137,122 at the 2010 census and an estimated 141,029 in 2019, making it the 41st largest city in California and the ninth-largest city in Los Angeles County. Pasadena was incorporated on June 19, 1886, becoming one of the first cities to be incorporated in what is now Los Angeles County, following the city of Los Angeles.
  Pasadena is known for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. It is also home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including Caltech, Pasadena City College, Fuller Theological Seminary, ArtCenter College of Design, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Ambassador Auditorium, the Norton Simon Museum, and the USC Pacific Asia Museum, with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in nearby La Cañada Flintridge.
context_section_description: Pasadena was served by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, which in 1906 became the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, at a Santa Fe Depot in downtown when the Second District was opened in 1887. In 1925, the historical and traditionally styled station in Pasadena was opened.  Originally, the Second District was an invaluable line; it served manufacturing and agricultural businesses throughout the entire San Gabriel Valley. But longer trains had great difficulty climbing the precipitous 2.2% grade at Arroyo Seco, between Pasadena and Los Angeles, requiring the costly addition of extra locomotives. The still-used Third District opened in 1888, just a year after the Second District, and rapidly took over most of the longer freight trains.
  The Second District and the Pasadena Depot became well known; up to 26 passenger trains went through Pasadena every day. To avoid the media in Los Angeles, many celebrities chose to use Pasadena as their main train station, bringing it an association with old Hollywood.
  Amtrak took over passenger rail operations in 1971, serving Pasadena with trains such as the Southwest Chief, Las Vegas Limited, and Desert Wind. On January 15, 1994, the final Southwest Chief train arrived in Pasadena. ATSF sold the line between Los Angeles and San Bernardino via Pasadena (known as the "second division"). (Now the Southwest Chief operates over the transcon via Fullerton.) The LACMTA L Line still uses the same right-of-way (although different tracks) as the Santa Fe. The old depot is still visible at the Del Mar station. Electrified Light Rail was the preferred alternative to Metrolink or similar style service because the city of Pasadena did not like or want diesel locomotives traversing the city. The construction of the Gold Line also allowed the closure of the former railroad crossing along Colorado Boulevard which meant that motorists and the Rose Parade would no longer be hindered by trains.
caption: Santa Fe Depot ca. 1900
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