On the Right Track

In the moments before dawn, commuters in business attire hurry from the darkness of the parking lot toward the cream-colored train depot at the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley.

The wheels of the 6:18 Metrolink, which began to turn in Oxnard, are now rolling through the tunnels of the Santa Susana Mountains, minutes away from the Chatsworth station.

Until two years ago, there wasn’t much more than an open-air platform. But now, commuters sit at tables. Some read the newspaper.

At the newly opened Whistle Stop Coffee Depot in the 5,000-square-foot building, the two friendly sisters who run the joint dispense schedule information along with hot drinks.

“Do you want some sugar with that, hon?” asks Phyllis Barber, a 49-year-old woman who tends to her customers with motherly care. “That train doesn’t go all the way to Oxnard, sweetie,” she advises another.

For years, the Chatsworth train stop, like most commuter train stops around Southern California, consisted merely of an outdoor platform where people waited in pouring rain and scorching heat.

The construction of a western-style depot is part of an effort to turn local train stations into commuter-friendly business centers that transportation officials hope will help boost rail commuting.

The Chatsworth station includes an all-day child-care facility and is slowly growing into a community center.

“The hope is that this town center will become a seven-days-a-week focal point for the community,” said Francine Oschin, a spokeswoman for City Councilman Hal Bernson, who helped broker the purchase of the land.

That is precisely the sort of development envisioned by officials and community members when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city bought the 13-acre plot next to the tracks from Southern Pacific Railroad in 1990.

“What you see in Chatsworth is an early example of how we hope things will be,” said Peter Hidalgo, a Metrolink spokesman.

Since its formation five years ago, he said, the agency has urged such development at the 46 stations the rail service uses in six Southern California counties.

Chatsworth’s efforts follow a handful of other train stops that have developed similar environments, including Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and stations in San Juan Capistrano and Claremont. Other communities considering such developments include Irvine and Burbank.

The Chatsworth property lies between Devonshire and Lassen streets, split by Old Depot Plaza Road. The building was built in an Old West style to reflect the Chatsworth site’s history as a stagecoach stop in the 19th century and the place where Roy Rogers and Dale Evans filmed many of their TV episodes.

The railroads dynamited a tunnel through Santa Susana Pass, where horse-drawn coaches once labored up the slopes.

The site was then served by a smaller train station and served as both a freight and passenger stop for decades.

In the 1960s, Southern Pacific announced it would tear down the building because of a lack of traffic. Residents wanted to preserve it as a historical site, but railroad crews arrived during the night and destroyed it, Oschin said.

Trains continued to stop there for the next two decades. And in 1990, Southern Pacific announced plans to build a lumberyard at the site, once again prompting protests from residents.

The MTA was forming Metrolink around the same time and the commuter train service needed stops. MTA, together with the city of Los Angeles, used an $8-million grant from the state to buy the property from the railroad. A citizen advisory board was formed to help formulate a master plan for the land.

First, a passenger platform was built to accommodate the Metrolink runs, which began in 1992. Then, construction began on the actual building.

The building was dedicated in April 1996, with Rogers and Evans attending.

The first amenity was the Transit Tots West child-care center. It currently has 30 children enrolled, including five belonging to parents who ride Metrolink trains, said Michele LeGrand, the facility’s director.

“I drop off my son. I buy a cup of coffee, sit at a table and get on the train,” said Mark Bondurant, 40, who brings 13-month-old Benjamin to the center each morning before traveling to Burbank, where he works writing computer software. “And now I have all these friends on the train.”

Parents who use the train or another shared form of transportation are eligible for a $100-per-month rebate on the center’s fees, which can run from $100 to $130 a week, depending on the child’s age. The center is open from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

In another part of the building, a large lobby in front of the Whistle Stop is furnished with tables and wooden benches.

A painting of the rocky peaks west of Chatsworth adorns one wall. Old tools, such as a rusted nail puller, hang from the walls.

Work continues on a bicycle shop scheduled to open May 21, in time for California Bike Commute Day.

The start-up money for the bike shop project comes from $350,000 in grants from the MTA and the city, said Aaron Hanson, the executive director of the nonprofit 12th Council District Transportation Management Assn., which is heading the project.

The shop will feature bicycle storage, repair and rentals--including electric bikes. It will eventually be operated by Hanson’s organization and a private company, Hanson said.

Tenants are still needed for an 800-square-foot space next to the bike shop and another small space opposite the coffee shop.

There are also plans for businesses such as cleaners, a market, a bank--or at least an ATM--and even a post office.

Renee Berlin, MTA’s San Fernando Valley/North County-area director, said the agency will begin advertising the project to developers within the next two months.

One recent morning at the station, Barber and her sister Jackie Baughman, 37, greeted the regulars at their coffee shop, many of them by name. Baughman hustled out to deliver to arriving trains the breakfast orders that conductors and passengers call in, using their cellular phones as the trains near the station.

“They do a great job,” Kathy Colquitt, a Woodland Hills resident dropping by the station, said of the sisters. “They’ll yell at people, ‘Hey, who left this?’ They’re always happy.”

The Chatsworth station’s ridership has increased from just under 300 passengers in 1992 to almost 600 today, Hidalgo said. The counts were taken randomly and cover only the earliest four morning trains. Another 12 go through the station daily.

But not all those who come to the station are commuters. Some are on walks, bike rides or are there simply to see the trains, Barber said. “There’s a lot of really nice people that go through here.”

A banker for many years, she said she chose the train stop to launch her first business because it provides a reliable clientele. Since she opened six months ago, business has increased about 30% each month, she said.

The sisters’ business success and their popularity among customers has not gone unnoticed.

Members of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce--which in December moved to the building--recently voted the Whistle Stop the 1997 business of the year, said Pam Campeau, the chamber’s chief executive officer.

The station’s environment is a pleasant stop in commuters’ daily routine.

“This is half the fun,” said Michael Meyer, a 37-year-old manufacturing engineer from Simi Valley, walking out from the Whistle Stop with an iced mocha in hand. “I get upset when I have to drive.”