VTA light rail

VTA operates 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of light rail route on 3 lines. All the lines and the corridors they run through are designed to move passengers from the suburban areas of Santa Clara Valley into the major business areas in Downtown, the Santa Clara County Civic Center, and northern Silicon Valley, site of many high-tech company offices.

Light Rail also serves to connect travelers to other transportation systems at several key points: Diridon station offers connections to Caltrain, ACE, Amtrak's Coast Starlight, the Capitol Corridor trains; Milpitas station offer connections the BART system; and Metro/Airport station offers a connection to the San Jose International Airport via VTA Bus route 60.

The system is mostly double-tracked with overhead catenary wires. It variously runs along the medians of former railroad rights of way, freeways and surface streets, and pedestrian malls.

The Almaden shuttle was a 3-stop spur from the Ohlone/Chynoweth station to Almaden station at the Almaden Expressway in the Almaden Valley. The shuttle, which ran a single 1-car train, took about 4 minutes to travel between Ohlone/Chynoweth and Almaden. This line had one track, with sidings at Almaden and Ohlone/Chynoweth. The line was discontinued in December 2019 and replaced by bus service.[5]

The Commuter Express service operated along the same route as the current Blue Line between Baypointe and Santa Teresa stations, with nonstop service between Convention Center and Ohlone/Chynoweth stations. This weekday, peak-period service offered three trips in the morning and three trips in the evening. The service was introduced in October 2010 and was eliminated in August 2018 because of low ridership.

Unusually for light rail systems in the United States, most VTA Light Rail stops are made by request. Similar to VTA's bus network, passengers must be visible to the operator while waiting at stations and must notify the operator using the bell before the train arrives at their destination. Trains will typically skip stops (other than line termini) if no one is waiting on the platform and no one requests to disembark.[6]

Lines run for 19 hours per day on weekdays, with headways of 15 minutes for most of the day. On weekends, the train runs at 30-minute headways throughout the day. After around 8 pm on both weekdays and weekends, trains run at 30 to 60-minute headways. The light rail frequency does not meet VTA's definition of "frequent service."[7]

The first phase, then called the Guadalupe Line, broke ground in October 1986 and opened for revenue service on time[11] on December 11, 1987, running between Old Ironsides station (near the Great America theme park and Silicon Valley office parks) and a temporary Civic Center station at First and Younger (near the junction to VTA's Guadalupe Division rail yard on Younger).[12][13] The second phase opened about six months later on June 17, 1988 and extended the rails south from a permanent Civic Center station (replacing the temporary First and Younger station) through a transit mall in Downtown San Jose to Convention Center station. The third phase opened on August 17, 1990, extending rails into the median of California State Route 87 (Guadalupe Freeway) to Tamien station, adding the first connection to Caltrain. The fourth and final phase of the Guadalupe Line added rails in the median of California State Route 85 (West Valley Freeway) to a terminus at Santa Teresa station just off the freeway in South San Jose. Originally projected to be completed in late 1988, it was delayed for a two-year review and opened on April 25, 1991, with a scaled-down interchange between State Routes 85 and 87 and more sound walls. At the same time, the now abandoned Almaden spur line opened.[12][14][11]

The system's first major expansion, Tasman West, opened in 1999, extending the rails from the northern end of the Guadalupe line to Mountain View.[15]

In May 2001, the first phase of the Tasman East extension opened, connecting the Tasman West line to Milpitas.[16][17] New Kinki Sharyo low-floor light rail vehicles were introduced to this line the following year. Phase two of the Tasman East and the Capitol extension, completed in 2004, brought service east to the Great Mall of the Bay Area and the Alum Rock Transit Center.[15]

On October 1, 2005, the first phase of the Vasona extension was completed, extending the system from downtown San Jose through San Jose Diridon station to the Winchester Transit Center along a former Union Pacific Railroad right of way.[15]

The agency had ambitious plans to expand the light rail system, which have mostly been canceled. The Capitol Expressway extension would have extended the system 8 miles (13 km) south from Alum Rock station to Capitol station,[18] the second phase of the Vasona extension would have extended the system 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south from Winchester station to the line's namesake Vasona Junction, and the Santa Clara / Alum Rock extension would have added 4 miles (6.4 km) of track along the busy Santa Clara Street.[19] The Capitol Expressway extension (now known as Eastridge to BART Regional Connector) has been became a proposed 2.5-mile (4.0 km) line (see Future section), phase two of the Vasona extension has been canceled,[20] and the Santa Clara / Alum Rock extension became a bus rapid transit line, Rapid 522.[21] No new lines have been added to the system since 2005.

The system received a major reconfiguration in 2019 and 2020, coinciding with the completion of the Silicon Valley BART extension. The Orange Line was established between Mountain View, Milpitas (the new BART station), and Alum Rock, the Blue Line was truncated at Baypointe, and the Almaden Shuttle line was discontinued entirely and replaced with a new bus route.[22]

On May 26, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at the VTA light rail yard (Guadalupe Division). Ten people, including the gunman, were killed during the shooting, the deadliest in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area.[23] As a result of the shooting, the entire light rail system was shut down for months.[24][25] The system partially restarted on August 30, 2021,[26] and fully restarted on September 18, 2021.[27]

Service history of VTA light rail corridors[15][28][29]

	Corridor	Map color	Opened	Terminus 1	Terminus 2	Length	Stations	Ref.
	Guadalupe Phase 1		December 11, 1987	Old Ironsides	Civic Center[lower-alpha 1]	6.8 mi (10.9 km)	12	[30]
	Guadalupe Phase 2		June 17, 1988	Civic Center	Convention Center	1.8 mi (2.9 km)	5	[31]
	Guadalupe Phase 3		August 17, 1990	Convention Center	Tamien	1.6 mi (2.6 km)	3	[32]
	Guadalupe Phase 4		April 25, 1991	Tamien	Santa Teresa	8.6 mi (13.8 km)	8	[33]
	Almaden Spur		April 25, 1991[lower-alpha 2]	Ohlone/Chynoweth	Almaden	1.1 mi (1.8 km)	2
	Tasman West		December 17, 1999	Old Ironsides	Mountain View	7.6 mi (12.2 km)	16[lower-alpha 3]	[34][35]
	Tasman East Phase 1		May 2001	Baypointe	I-880/Milpitas	1.9 mi (3.1 km)	2
	Tasman East Phase 2		June 24, 2004	I-880/Milpitas	Hostetter	2.9 mi (4.7 km)	4	[36]
	Capitol			Hostetter	Alum Rock	3.5 mi (5.6 km)	4
	Vasona		October 1, 2005	Convention Center	Winchester	5.3 mi (8.5 km)	8	[37]
	Eastridge		(2027)	Alum Rock	Eastridge	2.4 mi (3.9 km)	2	[38][39]

Notes

On March 21, 2008, at approximately 7:10 p.m., a southbound 2-car light rail train derailed just north of the Virginia station. Four people, including the train operator, were injured, and the train was heavily damaged. At the time of the accident, trains were operating on a single track through the area because of construction at three nearby light rail stations. The train involved was attempting to switch between tracks when it derailed. VTA ruled out mechanical or equipment failure as a cause for the accident.[53] An investigation indicated human error ("the train traveling southbound stopped over the switch and reversed, which are violations of operating rules").[54]

On July 8, 2018, at around 12:34 p.m., a northbound single car light rail train collided with a car in the Lincoln Avenue crossing near Auzerais Avenue on the Mountain View-Winchester Line. Two occupants of the car were killed. The train operator was taken to a hospital according to standard operating procedures. The twenty passengers on the train were not seriously injured. The lead segment of the train (934B) left the tracks and knocked down a pole supporting the LRT catenary wires.[55]

On May 26, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a VTA rail yard in San Jose, California. Ten people, including the gunman, were killed during the shooting.[56][57][58][59] It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area.[23] As a result of the shooting, service was suspended indefinitely across the light rail system[24] and returned in stages throughout August and September.[60]

The Eastridge to Bart Regional Connector (formerly known as the Capitol Expressway extension) light rail extension would extend the Orange Line south of the Alum Rock station to the Eastridge Transit Center on an elevated median along Capitol Expressway.[61] The extension will include an elevated station at Story Road and a street-level station at Eastridge. VTA approved the final environmental impact statement of this segment in June 2019.[62]

The US$453 million project was criticized in a 2019 report by the Civil Grand Jury of Santa Clara County (see: Criticism section). The Grand Jury recommended the VTA board to abandon the extension because the project would attract approximately 611 new riders (after considering the reduction in ridership on the existing parallel bus lines). The board rejected that recommendation saying that the project had been approved by voters.[63]

With the project setbacks and limited funding, the line eventually started pre-construction activities in early 2021. It also got fully funded in early 2023 from a $46 million state grant.[64] A groundbreaking for construction is scheduled for Spring 2024, with passenger service planned for 2029.