Santee station (also known as Santee Town Center station) is a station on the
Copper Line of the
San Diego Trolley
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system serving San Diego County, California. The trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. , is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The trolley operates as a critical componen ...
, in the
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
suburb of
Santee, California
Santee is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. The population was 60,037 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the East County region. The city is bisected by the San Diego River, a linear greenbelt that includes parks, trails ...
. The station currently serves as the Copper Line's northern terminus and serves as a major
park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...
station. It is located inside a shopping center on the northeast corner of the intersection of Mission Gorge Road and Cuyamaca Street.
History

Santee station opened on August 26, 1995, as the new terminus of the East Line (renamed the
Orange Line in 1997), marking the fourth segment to open on the line.
In 2005, the Orange Line was truncated to (and later ) and service to Santee was replaced by the
Green Line.
The truncation was originally due to the fact that the path between Gillespie Field and Santee Town Center is
single tracked, and having two lines running on that route would cause operational issues.
Until September 2005, Santee city law prohibited rail service after 9:00 p.m., meaning that most evening service terminated at El Cajon. The law was lifted in September 2005, soon after the Green Line began operation to Santee.
To further reduce operational issues on the single track between Gillespie Field and Santee, the Copper Line began service on September 29, 2024, and the Green Line was also truncated back to El Cajon.
See also
*
List of San Diego Trolley stations
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in San Diego County, California. The trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (reporting mark SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The San Diego Trol ...
References
External links
Santee Trolley Square Shopping Center
Green Line (San Diego Trolley)
San Diego Trolley stations
Santee, California
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1995
1995 establishments in California
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