San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot forSan Jose, California. It also serves as a majorintermodal transit center forSanta Clara County andSilicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County SupervisorRod Diridon Sr.
The station is on theUnion Pacific RailroadCoast Line tracks (formerlySouthern Pacific Transportation Company) at 65 Cahill Street in San Jose. The depot is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places for itsItalian Renaissance Revival style architectural and historical significance.
The station is served byCaltrain,ACE,VTA light rail, andAmtrak trains. The bus plaza at the station is served byAmtrak Thruway,Greyhound,Monterey–Salinas Transit,Santa Cruz METRO (Highway 17 Express), andVTA buses.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Green and Orange Line metro service to a new underground station is projected to begin in 2036 with the completion of theSilicon Valley BART extension.[6][7]
The depot is in theItalian 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 passengerwaiting room, measures 40 by 80 feet (12 by 25 m) and is 33 feet (10 m) high. The high centerpavilion housing the waiting room is constructed of steel columns andtrusses. The side wings are framed with wood. The exterior walls are clad with tapestry brick or varied colors and arranged in anEnglish bond pattern. The depot is in an industrial area formerly dominated by warehouses and related commercial businesses. Several vernacular sheds, awater tower, butterfly passenger sheds and the nearby Alameda underpass are all contributing buildings and structures within the railroad station.[8]
The building was designed by Southern Pacific architect,John H. Christie, who had worked on the Southern Pacific remodeling of theFresno depot in 1915 and later, in 1939, worked onUnion Station inLos Angeles. This depot is one of only fourItalian Renaissance Revival style depots in California, and the largest surviving depot of the San Francisco–San Jose line. The only other large depots built in California during the 1930s were theLos Angeles Union Passenger Terminal andStockton Cabral station.
A rail station at this location was established in 1878, when thenarrow-gaugeSouth Pacific Coast Railroad opened their San Jose Depot on the site. When Southern Pacific gained control of the railroad in 1887, the station was folded into the system and referred to as the West San Jose Depot.[9]: 25
The current station opened in December 1935 asCahill Depot. 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 theSouthern Pacific Railroad away from the heavy traffic ofthe downtown area around theMarket Street Depot, formerly located at Market and Bassett Streets, to the eastern edge ofWillow Glen. The new depot replaced the Fourth Street line's station for passengers,[9]: 26 though freight operations persisted for some time at the old facility.
The Cahill Depot was a stop for several Southern Pacific passenger trains, including the famousSan Francisco–Los Angeles train, theCoast Daylight. Other "named" trains that used the station were the all first-classLark (a San Francisco-Los Angelesnight train), seasonalSuntan Special, and theDel Monte. It was also a major station on thePeninsula Commute, the SP's commuter service between San Jose andSan Francisco.
Amtrak took over long-distance passenger train service in 1971. Fourteen years later, Caltrans took over the Peninsula Commute and renamed it Caltrain.
Restoration of the station was finished in 1994,[9]: 125, 126 when the station was renamedDiridon Station after formerSanta Clara CountySupervisorRod Diridon.[10]
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.[11] 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 inauguralSan Jose Grand Prix race.
The passenger platform was featured in the opening scene ofAlfred Hitchcock'sMarnie (1964) representing theHartford, Connecticut, train station.
San Jose Diridon station is a major station forCaltrain. It is the southern terminus for most electric trains from San Francisco save for a limited number of local trains which continue toTamien. It is also the northern terminus for South County Connector diesel services fromGilroy, which provide timed transfers to and from electric trains for passengers continuing to points north of Diridon.
The station is also the southern terminus for theAltamont Corridor Express, a commuter service running betweenStockton and Silicon Valley.
The station is the southern terminus for theCapitol Corridor, Amtrak's regional rail service for the urban core of Northern California, with seven round trips toSacramento on weekdays and six on weekends. A seventh weekend round trip goes all the way toAuburn in the foothills of theSierra Nevada. It is also a major stop for theCoast Starlight, providing long-distance service running along the length of the Pacific Coast fromSeattle toLos Angeles.
Diridon Station is served by theGreen Line of theVTA light rail system.
The San Jose Diridon station is planned as a future stop on theCalifornia High-Speed Rail line and Phase II of VTA'sSilicon Valley BART extension in Santa Clara County. Since late 2019, CHSRA, VTA, Caltrain, and City of San Jose have jointly held "Diridon Integrated Station Concept Plan" public workshops to determine how to best rebuild the Diridon station in order to facilitate integration of future and existing services.
The BART station will be calledDiridon and planned to be a subway station adjacent to the train station and Santa Clara Street. It will be located between theSanta Clara andDowntown San Jose BART stations with direct service to Santa Clara,San Francisco/Daly City (via theEast Bay), andRichmond.[12]
At one point, political and business leaders had anticipated BART service beginning in 2026 in downtown San Jose, but the new estimates from VTA point to a service launch more in the 2029 or 2030 time frame…
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Park Service.
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