(The following story by Chris Richard appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on March 4.)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Amtrak’s Southwest Chief glided into San Bernardino on Monday just as the snow-capped mountains to the northwest caught the first faint flush of dawn.
About a dozen passengers, some still rubbing sleep from their eyes, stepped from the cars and drifted toward the station.
Before this week, that sleepy straggle would have come up short outside a locked door.
But Monday, thanks to a Station Host program staffed by volunteers from two local historical societies, the Santa Fe Depot stood brightly lit and ready to receive guests.
Volunteers and city officials hope opening the station twice a day for Amtrak’s 5:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. trains will, at last, bring about the depot’s long-awaited revitalization.
“The station was always supposed to be open to the public on a regular basis. It’s about time we get something like this going,” said Allen Bone, vice president of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society.
Under an agreement that took effect Saturday, Amtrak will pay $500 per month for the next 20 years to maintain a Station Host program at the depot. The Historical and Pioneer Society and the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society will provide volunteers to meet the morning and evening trains.
In exchange, the groups will receive $400 per month to help build a historical and railroad museum in a former station luggage room, said D’Ann Lanning, an aide to San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris. The remaining $100 of the Amtrak stipend will go to the San Bernardino Associated Governments, the depot’s half-owner and main tenant, to oversee the host program, Lanning said.
San Bernardino finished a $15.6 million restoration of the railroad depot four years ago. Amtrak had operated a ticket counter when the building renovation began, but declined to sign a new lease when it reopened, SANBAG spokeswoman Jane Dreher said.
With no other tenant to watch over the depot’s elegant lobby and ticketing area, SANBAG officials had no choice but to keep it locked, Dreher said.
Amtrak administrators worried about passengers’ safety, spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.
“I hear the area around that location is not very desirable,” she said. “We have to make sure our customers are in a safe and secure environment.”
In July, Amtrak warned Morris that it would drop the San Bernardino stop unless the depot lobby was reopened, Graham said. That would have made Riverside the only stop between Fullerton and Victorville, she said.
Morris called the arrangement with the historical societies an ideal solution, a first step toward reviving the station as a cultural and economic hub.
“This is all about partnerships,” he said. “Nobody had the ability to do this alone. But if we all get in the boat and row together, we can make this happen.”
For Martha Morales, a passenger on the Monday-morning train, the decision to reopen the station came at the right time.
Her husband, due to meet her at the train, was running about 10 minutes late. So Morales trundled her luggage inside.
“It’s very nice here,” she said. “It makes it a nice way to come home.”
Help Wanted
The San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society is seeking volunteers for a Station Host program at the city’s Santa Fe Depot.
Contact: sbhistoricalsociety @mac.com or 909-885-2204