Caltrain is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley. The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far as Gilroy. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th and King Street. Caltrain has 28 regular stops,one limited-service weekday-only stop,one weekend-only stop (Broadway),and one football-only stop (Stanford). While average weekday ridership in 2019 exceeded 63,000,impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant:in August 2022,Caltrain had an average weekday ridership of 18,600 passengers.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority,more commonly known simply as the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA),is a special district responsible for public transit services,congestion management,specific highway improvement projects,and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County,California. It serves San Jose,California,and the surrounding Silicon Valley. It is one of the governing parties for the Caltrain commuter rail line that serves the county. In 2022,the VTA's public transportation services had a combined ridership of 21,381,600,or about 84,800 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the government agency responsible for regional transportation planning and financing in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was created in 1970 by the State of California,with support from the Bay Area Council,to coordinate transportation services in the Bay Area's nine counties:Alameda,Contra Costa,Marin,Napa,San Francisco,San Mateo,Santa Clara,Solano,and Sonoma. The MTC is fourth most populous metropolitan planning organization in the United States.
San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose,California. It also serves as a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon Sr.
People in the San Francisco Bay Area rely on a complex multimodal transportation infrastructure consisting of roads,bridges,highways,rail,tunnels,airports,seaports,and bike and pedestrian paths. The development,maintenance,and operation of these different modes of transportation are overseen by various agencies,including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans),the Association of Bay Area Governments,San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency,and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. These and other organizations collectively manage several interstate highways and state routes,eight passenger rail networks,eight trans-bay bridges,transbay ferry service,local and transbay bus service,three international airports,and an extensive network of roads,tunnels,and bike paths.
Tamien station is an intermodal passenger transportation station in the Tamien neighborhood of central San Jose,California,served by the VTA light rail and the Caltrain commuter rail line,along with bus connections. The station has two elevated island platforms,one for each service. The two platforms are connected by a walkway at ground-level that is below the two platforms. The light rail platform is located in the center median of the State Route 87 freeway just north of the Alma Avenue overpass. The Caltrain platform is located between Lick Avenue and State Route 87,just north of Alma Avenue.
Santa Clara Transit Center is a railway station in downtown Santa Clara,California. It is served by Caltrain,Amtrak Capitol Corridor,and Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) trains. It is the planned terminus for the Silicon Valley BART extension into Santa Clara County. The former station building,constructed in 1863 by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad,is used by the Edward Peterman Museum of Railroad History.
Cindy Chavez is an American politician who serves as the Santa Clara County supervisor representing district two,which is home to nearly 400,000 residents in Downtown,East,and South San Jose. Her public service career began in the 1990s as a policy analyst for health care,public health,human services and transportation for the Board of Supervisors. She served two terms on the San Jose City Council,where she was also Vice Mayor,and also served on the board leadership of public agencies such as the San Jose Redevelopment Agency,and executive director of Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. She has unsuccessfully run for Mayor of San Jose twice. She is a graduate of San Jose State University,is married and has a son in college.
Linda Joan LeZotte is an American politician from San Jose,California. She served on the San Jose City Council,representing District 1 from 1999 to 2007. She is an attorney and former member of the San Jose Planning Commission (1992-1998). She lost to City Councilmember Ken Yeager in the 2006 race for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. From 1999 to 2015 she practiced law with her own law firm and during that period she served as counsel for Berliner Cohen in San Jose.
David Dominic Cortese is an elected official from San Jose,California. He is currently serving in the California State Senate,representing District 15,which encompasses a majority of Santa Clara County. Before being elected to the California State Senate,Cortese served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for 12 years,as a Councilmember and Vice Mayor for the City of San Jose for eight years,and for eight years as a trustee for the East Side Union High School District in San Jose. Cortese ran for mayor of San Jose and won the primary,losing the general election to District 3 councilmember Sam Liccardo.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) is a public agency that regulates the stationary sources of air pollution in the nine counties of California's San Francisco Bay Area:Alameda,Contra Costa,Marin,Napa,San Francisco,San Mateo,Santa Clara,southwestern Solano,and southern Sonoma. The BAAQMD is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors composed of elected officials from each of the nine Bay Area counties. The board has the duty of adopting air pollution regulations for the district. It is one of 35 Air Quality Management Districts in California.
James Thomas Beall Jr. is an American politician who served in the California State Senate from 2012 to 2020. A Democrat,he represented the 15th Senate District,which encompasses the South Bay and Silicon Valley.
Pierluigi Oliverio was the 6th district Councilmember on the San Jose City Council. He was sworn in on March 20,2007,and left office in 2016.
The VTA light rail system serves San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County,California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority,or VTA,and consists of 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of network comprising three main lines on standard gauge tracks. Originally opened on December 11,1987,the light rail system has gradually expanded since then,and currently has 60 stations in operation.
Santa Clara County,officially the County of Santa Clara,is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California,with a population of 1,936,259,as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together form the U.S. Census Bureau's San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area,which is part of the larger San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area. Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Northern California. The county seat and largest city is San Jose;with about 1,000,000 residents,it is the 10th-most populous city in the United States,California's third-most populous city and the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The second- and third-largest cities are Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.
Rod Diridon Sr. is an American politician known for his leadership in mass transportation. He served as chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority from 2001 to 2003. He currently chairs the advisory board of the United States High Speed Rail Association,and he chairs the National Heritage Area Project for Santa Clara County,California. The New York Times calls Diridon "a tireless advocate of public transport for the Bay Area."
Dominic Caserta is a former member of the Santa Clara City Council and has been a local educator since 1997.
San Jose,California has various cycling routes on roads and trails used by both commuters and recreational riders. The city has plans to expand the current 285 miles (459 km) of bike lanes to 400 miles (640 km),and the current 60 miles (97 km) of trails to 100 miles (160 km). San Jose was ranked as a bronze-level bicycle-friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.
The Monterey County Rail Extension is a planned commuter rail extension that would bring Caltrain passenger service south of its existing Gilroy,California terminus to Salinas in Monterey County,using the existing Coast Line owned by Union Pacific (UPRR). Implementation of the rail extension will occur over three phases,starting from Salinas and moving north. When construction is complete,there will be four trains operated over the extended line per weekday:two northbound trains that depart from Salinas and travel to San Francisco in the morning,and two southbound trains that return to Salinas in the afternoon.
