Amtrak Service to Be Expanded

Amtrak has gotten approval to build a service building that will allow train service from San Diego to Santa Barbara.

Approval by the Santa Barbara Planning Commission this week for a storage building needed to service the train will enable expanded service to begin by mid-May, said Amtrak spokesman Arthur Lloyd.

The round trip run will be an extension of one of the eight trains that now make daily trips between Los Angeles and San Diego. The new service will include stops in Glendale, Van Nuys, Chatsworth, Simi Valley, Oxnard and Santa Barbara, Lloyd said. A stop is scheduled to be added later in Ventura.

Officials expect the expanded route to be used mainly by tourists, students and some business people, but not commuters, officials said.

“I think it’s going to have a positive effect on tourism,” said Rob Varley, spokesman for the Oxnard Visitors and Convention Bureau. “Increased service will bring more people up here and will relieve the freeways.”