Santa Clara
Valley Transportation Authority

Vasona Corridor

Santa Clara County, California (San Jose/Silicon Valley)

(last modified: April 24, 1999)

Standard Disclaimer: This information is being provided by me as a private citizen and is in no way to be considered to be official VTA information.

This corridor would branch off the Guadalupe corridor in the downtown area, serve the San Jose Caltrain Station then proceed along the S.P. tracks to Campbell. Last I heard the end of the line will likely be in downtown Campbell, near Campbell Ave.. Other plans have called for it to extend to the northern border of Los Gatos near the Winchester & Hwy 85 interchange. None of the plans have ever called for it to go any farther into Los Gatos.

They have been holding public meetings on the alignment of this corridor, this would mainly affect the section between fourth St. and the San Jose Diridon Caltrain Station. Beyond this point the ROW is pretty much determined by existing RR ROW. The current proposals are whether to use San Fernando or San Carlos (Delmas). From an operations standpoint it would be better not to share tracks with the Guadalupe Corridor, this would restrict the schedule on the Vasona Corridor to be a multiple of that on Guadalupe. Whichever alignment is selected, this corridor will serve the San Jose Diridon Station, the station will be accessed through the tunnel from the Caltrain Station out to the tracks, there will also be an access from The Alameda. Current plans call for it to cross the Caltrain Tracks next to Santa Clara St. (this is where the old trolleys used to do it, and yes they used to get flooded out on occasion). Trains will probably layover on Fourth St. next to San Jose State Univ.. The San Carlos option is the current front runner because of cost. There is a major Pac Bell phone line junction under San Fernando St.

The Delmas/San Carlos alignment is the current planed corridor being worked on.

Currently it is scheduled to have approx. 60% of the ROW single tracked, UP still needs the other tracks for freights. The single tracking will put severe limitations on operating schedules. This will restrict the schedule so that trains always pass in double track sections.

This corridor was in some of the original Guadalupe Corridor Alternative Studies for a possible Caltrain extension.

For a lot of reasons, there will be some sort of connection between Vasona and Guadalupe so that trains could be moved from one to the other.

Likely station locations:

At this point these are pure guess work, most of it depends on which alignment is chosen. I haven't seen any detailed plans for the south end as of yet, but I am taking a guess as to stations based on reasonable spacing and street locations. These are some of the most likely locations.

This section is being left to the future .
Vasona Junction (Winchester & Hwy 85) (future)
Hacienda (future)
Winchester (future) There is talk that this station might be built as part of the original construction.

From here on is in current plans.
Campbell (Railroad South of Orchard Pkwy)
This is the location of the old Campbell Station.
*Hamilton (South side of Hamilton)
This is next to the ramp onto Hwy 17
Bascom (Southwest Expwy. & Stokes)
Across Stokes from Del Mar High School
Fruitdale (Across Southwest Expwy from K-Mart)
Race (Just east of Race)
*West San Carlos (future, Next to Cheim Lumber)
This is near the old Central Yard
*San Jose Caltrain (Across tracks from Station Building)
Access to this station will be provided from Caltrain by extending the passenger tunnel beyond track 5.
*Los Gatos Creek (Not sure of name, just north of San Fernando) This station appears on one of the fact sheets.
*Almaden (If the San Fernando Option is chosen)
*Convention Center (If Delmas option is chosen)
*The Mall  1st/2nd Street.
On San Fernando if San Fernando option is chosen, otherwise it will be the San Antonio, Santa Clara, and possibly the St James Stations.
* Not listed in Mercury News Article.

Stations listed in the San Jose Mercury News on 11/7/96:
Race
Fruitdale
Bascom
Campbell Ave. There is some discussion of extending this to serve the new Civic Center at 4th & Santa Clara complex if it is built.

Current plans call for Vasona to operate with 1 car trains using wayside wheelchair lifts to provide access for the disabled.

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Created by Eric Rosenberg