The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a wye at Montalvo in late 1897 on the original route connecting Ventura to Los Angeles through the Santa Clara River Valley.
This spur was needed for shipping construction equipment to the site of a new beet sugar refinery.
A wooden railroad trestle and rail line were constructed over the Santa Clara River as the spur headed south, reaching the new settlement here on the relatively isolated coastal plain in April 1898.
The rail line turned here from the north-south alignment to east-west as they continued building the tracks to Santa Susana in the Simi Valley.
With the completion of the Santa Susana Tunnel, this became the most direct route between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The new settlement was named after the factory owner and in 1904 traffic on the coast railroad line was rerouted through Oxnard.
In 1987, the current station was constructed on the northerly end of the curve while the former station remained at the southerly end.
The former Oxnard depot has continued in use as a maintenance and freight yard office by Union Pacific.

Metrolink service started on April 4, 1994, after the Northridge earthquake damaged Simi Valley Freeway and the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to temporarily fund the extension of service.
The trains were stored overnight in a temporary layover facility in the Montalvo neighborhood of Ventura where the Santa Paula branch line owned by the Ventura County Transportation Commission connects to the Coast Line.


The station was formerly on State Route 1 but in 2014, Oxnard Boulevard was relinquished to the city in anticipation of a bypass route east of the Oxnard that would meet US 101 at the rebuilt interchange at Rice Avenue.

 In 2015, a southbound Metrolink train left this station and crashed into a truck at Rice Avenue about 2 miles from the station injuring several passengers and an engineer (fatally).
A Rice Avenue overpass that would take the rerouted State Route 1 over the rail line has long been proposed at the site where the accident occurred.
The new overpass would include an interchange with State Route 34 (known as 5th Street for most of the route) that parallels the rail line to Camarillo.
The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a wye at Montalvo in late 1897 on the original route connecting Ventura to Los Angeles through the Santa Clara River Valley. This spur was needed for shipping construction equipment to the site of a new beet sugar refinery. A wooden railroad trestle and rail line were constructed over the Santa Clara River as the spur headed south, reaching the new settlement here on the relatively isolated coastal plain in April 1898. The rail line turned here from the north-south alignment to east-west as they continued building the tracks to Santa Susana in the Simi Valley. With the completion of the Santa Susana Tunnel, this became the most direct route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The new settlement was named after the factory owner and in 1904 traffic on the coast railroad line was rerouted through Oxnard. In 1987, the current station was constructed on the northerly end of the curve while the former station remained at the southerly end. The former Oxnard depot has continued in use as a maintenance and freight yard office by Union Pacific.
Metrolink service started on April 4, 1994, after the Northridge earthquake damaged Simi Valley Freeway and the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to temporarily fund the extension of service. The trains were stored overnight in a temporary layover facility in the Montalvo neighborhood of Ventura where the Santa Paula branch line owned by the Ventura County Transportation Commission connects to the Coast Line.

The station was formerly on State Route 1 but in 2014, Oxnard Boulevard was relinquished to the city in anticipation of a bypass route east of the Oxnard that would meet US 101 at the rebuilt interchange at Rice Avenue. 
 In 2015, a southbound Metrolink train left this station and crashed into a truck at Rice Avenue about 2 miles from the station injuring several passengers and an engineer (fatally). A Rice Avenue overpass that would take the rerouted State Route 1 over the rail line has long been proposed at the site where the accident occurred. The new overpass would include an interchange with State Route 34 (known as 5th Street for most of the route) that parallels the rail line to Camarillo.
Oxnard Transit Center