Type Light rail Opened 1987 | Stations 38
(plus 3 planned) | |
 | ||
System Santa Clara VTA Light Rail Locale Santa Clara County, California
Cities: Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Campbell Termini Mountain View Station
Winchester Station | ||
Mountain View–Winchester is a light rail route operated by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The Mountain View–Winchester route is one of three existing VTA light rail routes. The other two light rail routes are the Alum Rock–Santa Teresa line and Ohlone/Chynoweth–Almaden line. On system maps, the line is represented as the Green Line; however, unlike many other transit systems, VTA personnel do not refer to the line by its color, much less refer to it as Line 902 on official documents.
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Route description
The Mountain View–Winchester line starts from the Downtown Mountain View station (Mountain View, California), travels toward the east, passing under U.S. Route 101 at Ellis Avenue, following Mathilda Avenue to Java Drive, crossing State Route 237 and turning east on Tasman Drive. At First Street, it turns south and shares tracks of the Alum Rock–Santa Teresa line to downtown San Jose. After the Convention Center stop, it leaves the shared portion of the tracks and heads south west to the Winchester station in southern Campbell, with a stop at Caltrain and Amtrak's Diridon Station. The whole route takes approximately one hour and fifteen minutes.
Owl service
From February 2000 to April 14, 2003, VTA operated all night train service with light rail vehicles (commonly known as "owl service") on a 70-minute frequency between Mountain View and Baypointe. At the time, VTA light rail was the only light rail service in the United States to operate 24 hours a day. The owl service was curtailed in 2003 as a result of mounting deficits.
Construction history
The route that the Mountain View–Winchester line now runs on is constructed in three different expansion projects: the original Guadelupé line, the Tasman West extension, and the Vasona extension.
Guadalupe line
The trackway between Woz Way in Downtown San Jose and Old Ironsides station is part of Guadelupe line, the first light rail line constructed in Santa Clara county. Guadalupe line opened for revenue service on December 10, 1987 originally running from Old Ironsides station to Civic Center station in San Jose. Champion station was not part of the original line; it was added as intermediate stop as part of the Tasman West project.
Service on this line was gradually expanded south from Civic Center station as follows:
Tasman West extension
The Tasman West extension project added to the line as follows:
Tasman West extension was constructed with funds from 1996 Measure B sales tax measure.
Vasona extension
Mountain View–Winchester contains the entire Vasona extension from San Fernando station to the southern line terminal, Winchester station. Vasona extension opened for revenue service on October 1, 2005. It was originally scheduled to open two months earlier on August 1 but delayed due to a dispute between Federal Railroad Administration and VTA. At issue was whether a waiver was needed from FRA, since the Union Pacific branchline that parallels most of Vasona extension is still actively used on a tri-weekly basis to serve a cement plant in the Cupertino Foothills. A waiver was finally obtained on the condition that all light rail vehicles sound their horns at crossings until "Quiet Zone" improvements are implemented (freight trains are still required to sound their horns). Vasona extension was also constructed with funds from 1996 Measure B sales tax measure.
Light Rail Efficiency Project
In 2014, a new storage track and crossover was constructed between Old Ironsides and Reamwood as part of improvements to support events at Levi's Stadium and the future Silicon Valley BART extension.
To provide better headways and service reliability, a second track is being constructed between Whisman and Downtown Mountain View. Work began in summer 2014 and is expected to be completed by late 2015. Evelyn Station was permanently closed in mid-March 2015 as part of track construction.
Possible future expansion
A Vasona extension Phase 2 was designed but not constructed because a funding source can not be identified. Phase 2 would extend the light rail line westwards to Vasona Junction in eastern Los Gatos. It is expected that Mountain View–Winchester would extend to terminate at Vasona Junction if Phase 2 is built.
Station stops
Transfer to Alum Rock–Santa Teresa line anywhere between Tasman and Convention Center
Station facilities
Many stations along this line have park-and-ride lots (labeled as ), as well as bike stations (labeled as ), including:
Supplementary service
During peak periods and late nights, many trains operate as short turn trips, meaning they operate portions of the route. Late night supplementary services are also provided northbound from Baypointe to Downtown Mountain View.