Courthouse opened on April 11, 2018 as the new permanent terminus (unless another trolley extension west of downtown materializes, out to San Diego Airport would be a good fit) station of the Orange Line Trolley. The station consists of a single platform that is the south sidewalk of C Street between State and Columbia Streets, directly outside tall fencing that protects the new San Diego Courthouse Central Courthouse, complete with a bridge connecting two courthouse buildings passing above the station. The platform has two modern canopy structures with black supports holding up a translucent white glass roof. The stop is located two blocks west of America Plaza and three blocks east of Civic Center.
The single platform is along a newly built siding track on the south side of the two-track mainline, with Blue Line trolleys skipping the station, not platforming. Trolleys normally enter the station from Civic Center, the driver then changes ends and then leaves the station in the opposite direction to head back to El Cajon. The station’s siding track is a through track with switches back onto the mainline two tracks at interlockings across the street at each end of the station.
The station exists because of a problem the Trolley faced after the 2012 realignment, no clear place to terminate the Orange Line in Downtown without blocking the tracks needed for through service on the Green Line and the Blue Line once the Mid-Coast Trolley extension opens in 2021-2022. Before the 2012 alignment both the Blue Line (some rush hour trolleys from San Ysidro short-turned at America Plaza) and Orange Line continued through Downtown, the Blue Line up to Old Town and the Orange Line back to 12th & Imperial Transit Center. The 2012 route realignment, which saw the Green Line extended from Old Town to 12th & Imperial Transit Center, allowing all trolley passengers a one seat ride to downtown, and took over the former loop around downtown Orange Line trolleys made back to 12th & Imperial via the waterfront line and the Convention Center. At first Orange Line trolleys terminated at Santa Fe Depot blocking through Green Line trolleys as they reversed on through tracks in the station, on June 11, 2017 trolleys were pushed back to sharing the America Plaza terminus with the Blue Line until this new station opened.
Photos 1-13 taken on 28 December, 2019
