Madera station is an unstaffed train station near

Madera, California Madera (Spanish language, Spanish for "Lumber") is a city in and the county seat of Madera County, California, Madera County, located in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Founded in 1876 as a timber town at the terminus of a major logging f ...

, United States that is served by ''

San Joaquins The ''San Joaquins'' is a state-supported passenger train service operated by Amtrak in California's San Joaquin Valley. As of 2025, the service operates seven daily round trips between its southern terminus at Bakersfield and Stockton. Of the ...

'' trains, which run between

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

and

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of the ...

, California.

Description

The station is located at 18770 Road 26, approximately north of the

city limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary (real estate), boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. ...

of Madera, and immediately north of the boundary of Madera Acres. The station has a single track with a

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

. The station has a payphone, Quik-Trak automated ticket kiosk, restrooms, and two shelters, but no indoor waiting area. An unattended 32-space parking lot is available at the station, with 2 spaces reserved for persons with

disabled parking permit A disabled parking permit, also known as a disabled badge, disabled placard, handicapped permit, handicapped placard, handicapped tag, and "Blue Badge" in the European Union, is a permit that is displayed upon parking a vehicle. It gives the o ...

s and 2 reserved for

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...

charging. Of the 78 California stations regularly served by Amtrak, Madera was the 51st-busiest in

Fiscal Year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

2013, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 75 passengers daily.

History

For over a hundred years, the area was served by the former

Storey train station Storey (known as Madera by Amtrak) was an unstaffed train station located in the unincorporated area, unincorporated community of Storey, and about southeast of the Fresno River, in Madera County, California, Madera County, California, United ...

, about east-northeast of Madera in the community of

Storey A storey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the wor ...

. When Amtrak took over nearly all passenger rail service in the United States in 1971, there was no longer any passenger service to the area. Amtrak resumed passenger rail served to Storey station (which Amtrak called Madera) with the ''San Joaquins'' on October 30, 1977. Although Amtrak substantially improved the conditions at Storey station, after about dozen years of service, official discussion began regarding improving the station. As the project plans developed over the next decade, the option of an entirely new station was selected over improvements to the existing one. Nearly all evidence of the former Madera (Storey) station has been entirely removed. Madera station 2396 02

In August 2010, ground was broken on this new station. The grand opening of the new Amtrak station took place on November 4, 2010, with regular service beginning the 8th. The $2 million station project, which included a new platform, shelter, lighting, access road and landscaping, involved the city of Madera, Amtrak,

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

and

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

. Funding came from Madera County's 2006 Measure T (which created a 0.5% transportation improvement

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

), the state of California and the

California Transportation Commission The California Transportation Commission (CTC) is an independent government transportation commission established in 1978. The CTC replaced and assumed the responsibilities of four prior independent agencies, the California Highway Commission, ...

. Over the next three years, the new station saw a nearly 25% increase in ridership and received additional improvements to the station, including

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s. Since the new station opened, service by the ''San Joaquin'' had increased substantially from the once daily runs in each direction. By 2010 the ''San Joaquin'' ran twice daily (in each direction) between Sacramento and Bakersfield and four times daily (in each direction) between Oakland and Bakersfield.

Future

The April 2016 revisions to

California High-Speed Rail California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system being developed in California by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Phase 1, about long, is planned to run from San Francisco, California, San Francisco to ...

's business plan proposed a relocated Madera station. The addition was partially the result of comments from the public review period. Several Madera County officials praised the addition of the high-speed rail stop. Funding for the new station was provided as part of the Valley Rail project in 2018. Work on station relocation is ongoing , as the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority has entered into negotiations with CAHSR, Madera County, and the city of Madera. the new station at Avenue 12 is expected to open in 2025.

References

External links

Madera Amtrak Station — USA Rail Guide (TrainWeb)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madera (Amtrak station) Railway stations in Madera County, California Amtrak stations in California Madera, California Railway stations in the United States opened in 2010 2010 establishments in California