Diridon Station

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San José Diridon Station Commuter rail (Caltrain, ACE, Capitol Corridor) Light rail (VTA)
Station statistics
Address	65 Cahill Street San Jose, CA 95110
Lines	VTA Light Rail Mountain View - Winchester Caltrain ACE Amtrak Capitol Corridor Coast Starlight
Parking	$2.00 a space per day (Caltrain)
Bicycle facilities	Racks available (Caltrain)
Other information
Opened	December 1935 (Depot) 1987 (Caltrain) 1998 (ACE) 2005 (VTA Extension)
Rebuilt	1996
Accessible
Code	SJC (Amtrak), SJD (ACE)
Owned by	Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board
Fare zone	Fare Zone 4 (Caltrain)
Traffic
Passengers (FY2007)	188,498 ▲ 24% (Amtrak)
Passengers (monthly avg. 2007)	2,422[1] ▲ 6.7% (Caltrain)
Services
Preceding station   VTA Light Rail   Following station San Fernando toward Mountain View Mountain View - Winchester Race toward Winchester Caltrain College Park toward 4th & King Local service Tamien Terminus Santa Clara toward 4th & King Limited-stop service Tamien toward Tamien Gilroy during peak hours Sunnyvale toward 4th & King Limited-stop service Tamien toward Tamien Gilroy during peak hours Mountain View toward 4th & King Baby Bullet Tamien Terminus Sunnyvale toward 4th & King Baby Bullet Tamien Terminus Altamont Commuter Express Terminus ACE Santa Clara toward Stockton Amtrak Oakland-Jack London Square toward Seattle Coast Starlight Salinas toward Los Angeles Santa Clara-Great America toward Auburn Capitol Corridor Terminus

Diridon Station (formerly the Cahill Depot or the Southern Pacific Depot; also known as San José Diridon or Downtown San José-Diridon Station) is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose, California. It also serves as a major transit hub for Santa Clara County. The station is located along the Union Pacific "Coast Line" tracks (formerly Southern Pacific property) at 65 Cahill Street in San Jose. The depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and historical significance.

[edit] History

The Cahill Depot was 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 South Pacific 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 neighborhood area in the 19th century and the former location of rail facilities belonging to other railroads, in 1935. The new depot effectively replaced the Fourth Street line's station.

The Cahill Depot was a destination for several Southern Pacific passenger trains, including the famous San Francisco - Los Angeles train, the Coast Daylight. 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, at which point the station was re-christened Diridon Station in honor of former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon. [1]

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 station immediately adjacent to the Diridon train depot. 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 is featured in the opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) as representing the Hartford, Connecticut train station. Marnie (Tippi Hedren) is seen walking down the platform, back to the camera with a yellow purse and a suitcase, setting down her suitcase and waiting for her train to arrive.

[edit] Architecture

The depot is constructed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. It consists of a three-story central section flanked by two-story wings. The building, a compilation of rectangular sections, is 390 feet (118 m) long and varies in width from 40 feet to 78 feet (12 to 24 m). The central section, which contains the passenger waiting room, measures 40 by 80 feet (12 to 25 m) and is 33 feet (10 m) in height. 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 located in an industrial area 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.

[edit] 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
• Downtown Area Shuttle (DASH)
• Amtrak Thruway Bus - San Joaquin Route

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Caltrain station list
• Southern Pacific Depot. California's Historic Silicon Valley. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.

This article contains material that originally came from a National Park Service website. According to their site disclaimer, "Information presented on this website, unless otherwise indicated, is considered in the public domain."

[edit] External links

• Caltrain
• Altamont Commuter Express
• Amtrak California
  • Capitol Corridor
• Amtrak
  • Coast Starlight
• Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)
• Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (Highway 17 Express)

• Diridon Station is at coordinates 37°19′48″N 121°54′10″W / 37.329961, -121.902795 (Diridon Station)Coordinates: 37°19′48″N 121°54′10″W / 37.329961, -121.902795 (Diridon Station)