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°W / 37.330; -121.903Coordinates: 37°19′48″N 121°54′11″W / 37.330°N 121.903°W / 37.330; -121.903
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 / 37.33000; -121.90250
Built	1935
Architect	John H. Christie
Architectural style	Italian Renaissance Revival
Governing body	Private
NRHP Reference #	93000274 [3]
Added to NRHP	April 1, 1993

Diridon Station (formerly the Cahill Depot or the Southern Pacific Depot; also known as San Jose Caltrain Station, San Jose Diridon or Downtown San Jose-Diridon Station) 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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

Transit connections[edit]

• 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

Possible California High-Speed Rail and future BART service[edit]

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 has brought in the Harvard University Graduate School of Design to assist in considering transportation and urban planning issues surrounding such a large-scale transit hub. The group will be led by a professor with experience directing urban planning projects in Dubai, Moscow, Budapest, Seoul, Buenos Aires and Bilbao. The results of 12 graduate student studies will be made available to the city for inclusion in its official planning process for the expansion of the Diridon Station and surroundings.^[8]

See also[edit]

• List of attractions in Silicon Valley
• Downtown San Jose

Footnotes[edit]

References[edit]

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

External links[edit]

• 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.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Current lines      Richmond–Fremont      Pittsburg/Bay Point–SFO/Millbrae      Fremont–Daly City      Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae      Dublin/Pleasanton–Daly City      Coliseum–Oakland International Airport Stations Oakland 12th Street Oakland City Center 19th Street Oakland Coliseum Fruitvale Lake Merritt MacArthur Oakland International Airport Rockridge West Oakland Proposed Doolittle Alameda County (outside Oakland) Ashby Bay Fair Castro Valley Downtown Berkeley Dublin / Pleasanton Fremont Hayward North Berkeley San Leandro South Hayward Union City West Dublin / Pleasanton Under construction Warm Springs / South Fremont (2016) Proposed Irvington Contra Costa County Concord El Cerrito del Norte El Cerrito Plaza Lafayette North Concord / Martinez Orinda Pittsburg / Bay Point Pleasant Hill / Contra Costa Centre Richmond Walnut Creek Under construction Antioch (2018) Planned Pittsburg San Francisco 16th Street Mission 24th Street Mission Balboa Park Civic Center / UN Plaza Embarcadero Glen Park Montgomery Street Powell Street San Mateo County Colma Daly City Millbrae San Bruno San Francisco International Airport South San Francisco Santa Clara County Under construction Berryessa (2017) Milpitas (2017) Planned Alum Rock Calaveras Diridon / Arena Downtown San Jose Santa Clara System features Berkeley Hills Tunnel Market Street Subway Transbay Tube Planned extensions eBART Silicon Valley extension Warm Springs extension Connecting bus services AC Transit Amtrak Thruway Bus Services Bear County Connection Dumbarton Express Estuary Crossing Shuttle Eastshore Charter Lines East Bay Paratransit Emery Go-Round Fairfield/Suisun Golden Gate Greyhound Lines Kaiser Shuttle MAX Delta Breeze Muni Links San Joaquin RTD SamTrans VTA Solano Express SolTrans (Benicia Breeze/Vallejo Transit) Tri Delta Union City Napa VINE WestCAT WHEELS Connecting rail services Amtrak Amtrak California Capitol Corridor San Joaquin Caltrain Muni Metro VTA Light Rail (2018) Connecting ferry services Blue & Gold Fleet Golden Gate Ferry San Francisco Bay Ferry Board of Directors District 1: Gail Murray District 2: Joel Keller District 3: Bob Franklin (President) District 4: Robert Raburn District 5: John McPartland District 6: Thomas Blalock District 7: Lynette Sweet District 8: James Fang District 9: Tom Radulovich Miscellaneous BART history AirBART Bay Area Rapid Transit District BART Police Clipper Library-A-Go-Go Category

Caltrain Stations 22nd Street (Atherton) Bayshore Belmont (Blossom Hill) (Broadway) Burlingame California Avenue (Capitol) (College Park) (Gilroy) Hayward Park Hillsdale Lawrence Menlo Park Millbrae (Morgan Hill) Mountain View Palo Alto Redwood City San Antonio San Bruno San Carlos San Francisco 4th & King Street San Jose Diridon (San Martin) San Mateo Santa Clara South San Francisco (Stanford) Sunnyvale Tamien Planned Transbay Transit Center Former Bay Meadows Butler Road Castro Paul Avenue Connecting Services AC Transit Altamont Corridor Express Amtrak Amtrak California Capitol Corridor Amtrak Thruway Bus Services BART California Shuttle Bus Dumbarton Express Highway 17 Express Monterey-Salinas Transit San Benito Transit Muni San Joaquin RTD SamTrans VTA Santa Cruz Metro Management Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board City and County of San Francisco San Mateo County Transit District Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Amtrak TransitAmerica Services, Inc. History Peninsula Commute San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Southern Pacific Transportation Company List of Peninsula Commute locomotives Miscellaneous Caltrain Centralized Equipment Maintenance and Operations Facility Clipper

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Management Santa Clara County VTA Light Rail      Alum Rock–Santa Teresa      Mountain View–Winchester      Ohlone/Chynoweth–Almaden Stations Almaden Alum Rock Bascom Baypointe Bayshore/NASA Berryessa Blossom Hill Bonaventura Borregas Branham Capitol Champion Children's Discovery Museum Cisco Way Civic Center Component Convention Center Cottle Cropley Crossman Curtner Downtown Campbell Downtown Mountain View Fair Oaks Fruitdale Gish Great America Great Mall/Main Hamilton Hostetter I-880/Milpitas Japantown/Ayer Karina Lick Mill Lockheed Martin McKee Metro/Airport Middlefield Moffett Park Montague Oakridge Ohlone/Chynoweth Old Ironsides Orchard Paseo de San Antonio Penitencia Creek Race Reamwood River Oaks Saint James San Jose Diridon San Fernando Santa Clara Santa Teresa Snell Tamien Tasman Vienna Virginia Whisman Winchester VTA Bus List of Santa Clara VTA bus routes Connecting Services AC Transit Altamont Corridor Express Amtrak Amtrak Thruway Bus Services Amtrak California Capitol Corridor BART Caltrain Dumbarton Express Highway 17 Express Monterey-Salinas Transit SamTrans Santa Cruz Metro Other Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board Clipper