12th & Imperial Transit Center is the most complicated San Diego Trolley Station and the location of their main train yard viewable from the station platforms and an overpass near the station and is just south of downtown. The station first opened for the Blue Line (named this in 1997) with the original service segment on July 26, 1981, the East line (now called Orange Line) arrived on March 23, 1986. The Waterfront extension to serve the Convention Center forming the loop around downtown opened on June 30, 1990. Until routings were reconfigured on September 2, 2012 the station was served by the Orange Line twice as it arrived from Gillespie Field and then terminating after passing through downtown via the Center City corridor and then the Bayside Corridor, luckily on clearly separate platforms. September 2, 2012 was the date when San Diego Trolley service was reconfigured and direct Green Line service to Downtown was finally provided, Blue and Orange Line trains were pushed back to America Plaza and Santa Fe Depot Respectively with the Green Line extended south from Old Town along the Bayside Corridor and to terminates at 12th & Imperial on the former Orange Line terminal platform making this station an important transfer point and the only station directly served by all 3 trolley lines.
The main 3 tracks of the station are surrounded by 4 platforms so every train opens its doors on both sides and this also met the requirements of the older ADA compliancy of the SD100 and U2 vehicles that required side platform loading for the wheelchair lifts. These platforms have the station's bus loop just east of them and have a modern, about 12 story building built directly over the platforms with a separate clock tower of a taller height. These buildings serve as the corporate headquarters of the Metropolitan Transit System, the operator of the San Diego Trolley. There is also a parking garage that has a similar design. The two eastern tracks are used by the Blue and Orange Line Trains only stopping intermediately on their way to pass through downtown, the third track beneath the building is unused. Green Line trains could stop at this platform but for better train yard access (and to avoid confusion) trains stop on their own platform with a few odd bus stop shelters (with white red lined roofs) just west of the station, on the north side of the train yard. This same seperated platform is where Orange Line terminated after they made the loop around downtown before 2012).
Photo 1-3 taken on 15 March, 2008; Photos 4-22 taken on 20 March, 2011; 23 on 22 June, 2013;
Gaslamp Quarter
Park & Market
