El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility

Needles, CA
El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility in July 2014
General information
Other names	El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility
Location	950 Front Street Needles, California United States
Coordinates	34°50′27″N 114°36′20″W / 34.84083°N 114.60556°W / 34.84083; -114.60556
Owned by	City of Needles/BNSF Railway
Line(s)	BNSF Southern Transcon (Needles Subdivision, Seligman Subdivision)
Platforms	1 side and 1 island platform
Tracks	3
Connections	Victor Valley Transit Authority: 200 Needles Area Transit
Construction
Parking	Yes
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	Amtrak: NDL
History
Opened	1908
Passengers
FY 2023	5,826[1] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Barstow toward Los Angeles Southwest Chief Kingman toward Chicago
Former services Preceding station Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Following station Goffs toward Los Angeles Main Line Topock toward Chicago
El Garces
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Needles, California
Built	1908
Architect	Francis W. Wilson
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP reference No.	02000537[2]
Added to NRHP	May 17, 2002
Location

El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility (also known as Needles station) is an Amtrak intercity rail station and bus depot in downtown Needles, California. The structure was originally built in 1908 as El Garces, a Harvey House and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) station. It is named for Francisco Garcés, a Spanish missionary who surveyed the area in the 1770s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

The Southern Pacific Railroad and ATSF subsidiary Atlantic and Pacific Railroad met at Needles and opened a station there in 1883. The Southern Pacific sold its line to the ATSF the next year, and Needles became a major waypoint on the ATSF route to Los Angeles. After the original station was destroyed by fire in 1906, the ATSF built El Garces – a large neoclassical structure containing a Harvey House hotel, restaurant, and train station – in 1908. It was the "crown jewel" of the Harvey House network, and among the first train stations made of concrete.

The hotel and restaurant closed in 1949 as passenger traffic declined. The ATSF converted the interior for office space and baggage use in the 1950s, and demolished the eastern third of the building in 1961. In 1988, the railroad abandoned El Garces entirely; the city purchased the building in 1999 and reopened it as the El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility in 2014. In 2016, Amtrak opened a dedicated waiting room for Southwest Chief passengers.