All Aboard for Oxnard Metrolink Rail Station : Transportation: Despite a few snags, the center services its first passengers. It is the last of seven stops added to help ease post-quake freeway congestion.

The ticket sellers were late, the coffee maker was on the fritz and at 5 a.m. Monday, the train storage station for the new Oxnard Metrolink service was still under construction.

But for the 54 paying passengers and train lovers who joined politicians at the Oxnard Transit Center, only one thing mattered: Metrolink had made it to town.

Oxnard is the last of seven Metrolink stops added to ease congestion caused by earthquake-damaged freeways. The rail service now stretches 346 miles through six counties.

“This is something we’ve been working on for years, so I’m really thrilled to see this day finally come,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said as he passed out plastic Metrolink pens.

Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, agreed.

“We’re all relieved that we were able to make this happen,” Gherardi said. “Now we’ve got to work on keeping it.”

Federal disaster aid for trains to Oxnard, as well as a Camarillo station added in February, runs out Oct. 1, and Ventura County transit officials are searching for funds to continue the service.

Flynn got help for the official Oxnard Metrolink ribbon-cutting from 6-year-old John Arevalo, who sported an oversized purple Metrolink cap.

“He just loves trains,” said John’s mother, Debbie Arevalo.

Nearby, Oxnard Councilman Mike Plisky complained about the pre-dawn chill. “It’s freezing,” he shouted, as the Oxnard High School Band performed a rousing march.

Plisky described his support for Metrolink service as lukewarm.

“Frankly, I normally don’t support these kinds of things because they don’t pay their way and are usually government boondoggles,” he said. “But since it’s here, I’m going to encourage people to ride it, because it could be good for the city’s image and good for business.”

Whatever Metrolink’s impact on the city’s economy, many passengers who rode the train to Los Angeles and back Monday were enthusiastic.

Even before the bell rang and the first double-decker, violet-and-white train pulled away from the station, briefcase latches popped and laptop computers whirred as passengers settled in for the ride.

Riders arranged themselves in seats diagonally across from each other, propping their feet on empty chairs while keeping watch for the conductor.

Some passengers chatted quietly, while others, heads thrown back and eyes squeezed shut, were determined to catch a little extra sleep. A library-like hush was broken only by the squeaks and groans of the train rumbling over the tracks.

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Staring out into the morning darkness, customer service manager Patricia Johnson said she had taken the train a few times from Moorpark and Camarillo to her job in downtown Los Angeles. But now that Metrolink stops near her home in Oxnard, Johnson pledged to become a faithful rider, even though taking the train will add an hour each way to her commute.

“When I drive, I can make it to work by 6:30, but that’s breaking all speed records,” Johnson said. “This way, I’ll get there by 7:30, but in a much more relaxed frame of mind.”

Joni Hawe drove 75 miles from Monrovia so that her 15-year-old son, Lew Edwards, could spend a day of his spring break riding the train.

“We’re both train buffs,” Hawe said. “But I wouldn’t have come all this way if it wasn’t for him.”

Lew said he planned to compare the ride to San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit. “I’m going to check to see if they are taking good care of their trains,” he said. “It’s terrible when people don’t take good care of their trains.”

Lew’s assessment of the three-hour round-trip excursion at day’s end? The trains are well-tended, and “the ride was pretty smooth, but it wasn’t long enough.”

For Ojai resident and avid Metrolink fan Diana de Noyelles, the Oxnard stop will make her daily commute a little easier.

“Instead of driving to Camarillo, I can go to Oxnard, which is closer,” said de Noyelles, who works as a legislative analyst in downtown Los Angeles. “The less I have to drive, the better.”

Transportation Commission spokeswoman Mary Travis said Oxnard ridership will have to double in the coming weeks to at least 100 passengers a day for the station to qualify for extended service.

Daily ridership from the Camarillo station has remained steady at about 120 passengers each way. Ridership throughout the system has doubled to 18,500 since the Jan. 17 quake.

“We know there are a lot of people who are counting on this service,” Travis said. “We expect Oxnard ridership to grow in the next few weeks as people hear about the train from their friends.”

For the trek home from Los Angeles’ bustling Union Station, purple-shirted Metrolink workers fanned out at the entrance to the track, assuring first-time riders that even though the big, lighted sign said “Destination: Moorpark,” the train would indeed take them to Oxnard.

At least one rider, however, would be perfectly happy if service to Camarillo and Oxnard ended tomorrow.

Donna Simmons, a map archivist who boards the train in Moorpark, yearns for the days when she could hop aboard and plop right down at one of the coveted desk-equipped seats.

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Simmons, who is paid by the hour, bills her company for the time she spends working while riding the train. She said she can get more work done with a desk.

“In the good old days, the train would be practically empty,” she said. “Now I find myself saying, ‘Oh no, another new station, more people.’ ”

Metrolink workers toiled through the night Sunday and most of Monday to finish laying tracks and installing fences for a temporary storage facility in Montalvo, about 1 1/2 miles from the Oxnard station, Travis said.

“There are so many things that go into starting up new service,” Travis said. “But now we’ve made it through the first day and it will only get easier.”