San Jose Diridon station

San Jose Diridon
Amtrak, Caltrain, ACE, and VTA station
Diridon Station at night, November 2005
Location	65 Cahill Street San Jose, California 95110
Coordinates	37°19′48″N 121°54′11″W / 37.330°N 121.903°WCoordinates: 37°19′48″N 121°54′11″W / 37.330°N 121.903°W
Owned by	Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board
Line(s)	Amtrak   Coast Starlight   Capitol Corridor Caltrain   Local service   Limited-stop service   Baby Bullet ACE   ACE Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail   Mountain View–Winchester
Platforms	1 side platform, 4 island platforms (Amtrak/Caltrain/ACE) 2 side platforms (VTA Light Rail)
Tracks	9 (Amtrak/Caltrain/ACE) 2 (VTA Light Rail)
Connections	VTA Bus Routes 22, 63, 64, 65, 68, 168, 180, 181, 522, DASH MST Route 55 Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach Route: 6 Stockton-San Jose California Shuttle Bus San Francisco-Los Angeles
Construction
Parking	$5.00 a space per day (Caltrain only)
Bicycle facilities	Racks available (Caltrain)
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	SJC (Amtrak) SJD (ACE)
Fare zone	4 (Caltrain)
History
Opened	December 1935 (SP) 1987 (Caltrain) 1998 (ACE) 2005 (VTA Extension)
Rebuilt	1996
Traffic
Passengers (2013)	258,776[1]  10.2% (Amtrak)
Passengers (2014)	3,714 per weekday[2]  6.4% (Caltrain)
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Oakland-Jack London Square toward Seattle Coast Starlight Salinas toward Los Angeles Santa Clara–University toward Auburn Capitol Corridor Terminus Caltrain Santa Clara toward San Francisco Local service Tamien toward Tamien Gilroy during peak hours College Park (weekday limited service) toward San Francisco Santa Clara toward San Francisco Limited-stop service Tamien toward Tamien Gilroy during peak hours Sunnyvale toward San Francisco Limited-stop service Mountain View toward San Francisco Baby Bullet Terminus Sunnyvale toward San Francisco Baby Bullet Peak, Pattern B Tamien Terminus Altamont Corridor Express Santa Clara toward Stockton ACE Terminus VTA Light Rail San Fernando toward Mountain View Mountain View–Winchester Race toward Winchester
Southern Pacific Depot
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Daytime Photo of Diridon Station
Location	San Jose, California
Coordinates	37°19′48″N 121°54′9″W / 37.33000°N 121.90250°W
Built	1935
Architect	John H. Christie
Architectural style	Italian Renaissance Revival
NRHP Reference #	93000274 [3]
Added to NRHP	April 1, 1993

San Jose Diridon (formerly the Cahill Depot or the Southern Pacific Depot; also known as San Jose Caltrain Station or Downtown San Jose-Diridon) is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose, California. It also serves as a transit hub for Santa Clara County and the Silicon Valley.

The station is on the Union Pacific Coast Line tracks (formerly Southern Pacific) at 65 Cahill Street in San Jose. The depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its Italian Renaissance Revival style architectural and historical significance.

The station is served by Caltrain, ACE, VTA light rail, and Amtrak. This is in addition to bus services by California Shuttle Bus, Amtrak Thruway Bus, Monterey-Salinas Transit, San Benito Transit, Santa Cruz Metro (Highway 17 Express), SMART, local VTA and employer shuttles and buses.

It is to have Bay Area Rapid Transit service when the Silicon Valley BART extension is complete and is to be preceded by a Downtown San Jose BART station.^[4]

History

The Cahill Depot opened in December 1935. The opening of the depot was the culmination of a 30-year effort to relocate 4.5 miles (7.2 km) of the Coast Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad away from the heavy traffic of the downtown area around the Market Street Depot, located at Market and Bassett Streets, to the eastern edge of Willow Glen, an industrial area in the 19th century and the former location of rail facilities belonging to other railroads, in 1935. The new depot replaced the Fourth Street line's station.

The Cahill Depot was a stop for several Southern Pacific passenger trains, including the famous San Francisco–Los Angeles train, the Coast Daylight. Other "named" trains that used the station were the all first-class Lark, and the Del Monte. Amtrak took over long distance passenger train service in 1971, and Caltrain equipment replaced all SP passenger equipment on the Peninsula Commute in 1985.

Restoration of the station was finished in 1994, when the station was renamed Diridon Station after former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon.^[5]

In 1996, Santa Clara County voters approved a half cent sales tax to fund the 1996 Measure B Transportation Improvement Project. Part of this project was the construction of the Vasona Light Rail extension which included a VTA light rail platform at the Diridon train depot.^[6] The official opening date for this light rail extension was October 1, 2005, however, revenue service at the San Fernando and Diridon Stations began on July 29, 2005 to accommodate attendees of the inaugural San Jose Grand Prix race.

The passenger platform was featured in the opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) as representing the Hartford, Connecticut, train station. Margaret (Marnie) Edgar (Tippi Hedren) is seen walking down the platform, back to the camera with a yellow purse tucked under her left arm and carrying a suitcase with her right, setting down the suitcase and waiting for her train to arrive.

Ridership

Of Amtrak's 74 California stations, San Jose was the 19th-busiest in FY2010, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 643 passengers daily.^[7]

Architecture

The depot is in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, with a three-story central section flanked by two-story wings. The building, a compilation of rectangular sections, is 390 feet (118 m) long and 40 feet to 78 feet (12 to 24 m) wide. The central section, which contains the passenger waiting room, measures 40 by 80 feet (12 by 25 m) and is 33 feet (10 m) high. The high center pavilion housing the waiting room is constructed of steel columns and trusses. The side wings are framed with wood. The exterior walls are clad with tapestry brick or varied colors and arranged in an English bond pattern. The depot is in an industrial area formerly dominated by warehouses and related commercial businesses. Several vernacular sheds, a water tower, butterfly passenger sheds and the nearby Alameda underpass are all contributing buildings and structures within the railroad station.

The building was designed by Southern Pacific architect, John H. Christie, who had worked on the Southern Pacific remodeling of the Fresno depot in 1915 and later, in 1939, worked on Union Station in Los Angeles. This depot is one of only four Italian Renaissance Revival style depots in California, and the largest surviving depot of the San Francisco–San Jose line. The only other large depot built in California during the 1930s was the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal.

Platforms and tracks

ACE/Amtrak/Caltrain platforms Tracks 1-9	■ ACE	toward Stockton (Santa Clara)
	■ Capitol Corridor	toward Auburn (Santa Clara)
	■ Coast Starlight	toward Seattle (Oakland–Jack London Square)
	■ Coast Starlight	toward Los Angeles (Salinas)
	■ Caltrain: Local service	toward San Francisco (College Park or Santa Clara)
	■ Caltrain: Local service	toward Gilroy (Tamien)
	■ Caltrain: Limited-stop service	toward San Francisco (Santa Clara or Sunnyvale)
	■ Caltrain: Limited-stop service	toward Tamien, Gilroy during peak hours (Tamien)
	■ Caltrain: Baby Bullet	toward San Francisco (Sunnyvale or Mountain View)
	■ Caltrain: Baby Bullet, Peak Pattern B	toward Tamien (Terminus)
VTA platforms	■ Mountain View–Winchester	toward Mountain View (San Fernando)
	■ Mountain View–Winchester	toward Winchester (Race)

Transit connections

• VTA Route 22
• VTA Route 63
• VTA Route 64
• VTA Route 65
• VTA Route 68
• VTA Express Route 180
• VTA Limited Route 305
• VTA Rapid Route 522
• Highway 17 Express - VTA's site
• Highway 17 Express - Santa Cruz Metro's site
• MST Express Route 55
• Downtown Area Shuttle (DASH) (free)
• Amtrak Thruway Bus - San Joaquin Route

Future BART and California High-Speed Rail service

The San Jose Diridon station is planned as a future stop on the California High-Speed Rail line and Phase 2 of San Jose BART extension in Santa Clara County. The high-speed rail track and platform locations have not been determined yet.

The BART station will be called Diridon/Arena and planned to be a subway station adjacent to the train station and Santa Clara Street. It will be located between the potential Santa Clara and Downtown San Jose BART stations with direct service to Santa Clara, San Francisco/Daly City, and Richmond.^[4]

If these plans are completed, Diridon Station would offer connections between Caltrain, high-speed rail, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor and Coast Starlight lines, ACE, and VTA light rail and buses, and BART.

The City of San Jose partnered with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design to study transportation and urban planning issues surrounding such a large-scale transit hub.^[8]

See also

• List of attractions in Silicon Valley
• Downtown San Jose

Footnotes

1. "2013 California Report" (PDF). Amtrak. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
2. Caltrain. "February 2014 Caltrain Annual Passenger Counts" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-07-11.
3. Staff (2006-03-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
4. BART Silicon Valley Fact Sheet. VTA - BART Silicon Valley, 2011.
5. http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_history.html
6. "Vasona Project Description". Completed projects. Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. 2008-09-15. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
7. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2012, State of California" (PDF). November 2012. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
8. "Diridon Station to Be Focus of Harvard Design Group" (Press release). City of San Jose. 2009-02-10. Retrieved 2016-03-26.

References

• "Southern Pacific Depot". California's Historic Silicon Valley. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-03-09.

External links

• Caltrain San Jose Diridon station page
• Altamont Corridor Express
• Amtrak California
  • Capitol Corridor
• Amtrak
  • Coast Starlight
• Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)
• Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (Highway 17 Express)
• Transit Unlimited — San Jose Diridon Station
• San Jose (SJC) — Great American Stations (Amtrak)

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.