Where will new Diridon Station tracks go through?
City Council must decide on a viaduct or expansion of the rail corridor
As San Jose forges ahead with plans to build one of the largest transit hubs in the western region, city leaders are grappling with just how much more neighborhoods who have historically born the brunt of some of the city’s largest transportation projects should have to endure.
In 20-30 years, San Jose anticipates that demand at Diridon Station will grow by tenfold to more than 100,000 passengers a day — or about as many as those that fly in and out of the San Francisco International Airport on a daily basis.
To accommodate for the exponential growth, a coalition of representatives from San Jose, Caltrain, Valley Transportation Authority and the California High-speed Rail Authority has come together to devise a plan to completely redevelop Diridon Station and the railroad track infrastructure needed to go along with it.
Two rail tracks currently cut through San Jose’s Gardner, Gregory and North Willow Glen neighborhoods and connect Diridon Station from the south. Bracing for the rail boom, officials have decided that four tracks will be needed moving forward.
The representatives and a team of consultants have studied two options for accommodating the additional tracks: expanding the existing rail corridor or building a bridgelike structure — also known as a viaduct — that would carry either some or all of the trains over the Interstate 280 and Highway 87 interchange and into the city’s Washington and Tamien neighborhoods.
Residents in North Willow Glen and Gardner — who have had their neighborhoods ripped up time and time again for largescale road and rail projects — have been lobbying the city to pursue the viaduct option to minimize the additional destruction to their communities.
But after evaluating both options, the team of officials and consultants has found that the viaduct option is “fatally flawed” and has recommended that city officials focus on the expansion of the existing corridor.
According to the team’s analysis, the viaduct would cost twice as much as expanding the existing corridor, would significantly increase maintenance needs and would severely affect currently unaffected neighborhoods, including Washington Guadalupe, Tamien and Alma-almaden, citing visual, environmental and noise concerns.
“We acknowledge that these communities have gone through — over several decades of history — very large infrastructure projects that have impacted their neighborhoods,” John Ristow, the city’s transportation director, said during a study session Tuesday night. “… But I want to make sure the community knows that all four agencies — no matter what is selected as an alternate alignment here — are really committed to making this the best alignment possible and one that this is better than it is today.”
City officials are expected to make a decision whether to drop the viaduct concept at a city council meeting Tuesday. The Caltrain, Valley Transportation Authority and California Highspeed Rail Authority board of directors will follow with their decisions in the subsequent days.
But a divided group of residents that spoke at a study session on the topic this week didn’t do much to make the decision easier for them.
Brett Bymaster, a resident who lives near Tamien Station, said the viaduct would cause more harm than good by cutting into Tamien Park, passing over the Guadalupe River Trail and potentially affecting dense housing developments planned near Tamien Station.
“It’s just not a good plan. It’s way too expensive and it just doesn’t make sense,” Bymaster during the Jan. 28 meeting. “It’s mitigating a few things in Willow Glen, but it’s creating way more problems elsewhere.”
Residents in the North Willow Glen and Gardner neighborhood, however, encouraged city leaders not to cast aside the viaduct option just yet.
A couple of years ago, residents in those neighborhoods were offered a chance to attend a tour with rail officials to learn about their plans for the track expansions.
At that time, they were promised that only three tracks would be needed and a single residential property would be affected.
The plans today call for four tracks that would affect at least 13 residential properties and two commercial properties, would diminish the size of Fuller Park in the Gardner neighborhood by at least 30% and would significantly affect the San José Word of Faith Church adjacent to the park.
“What’s gonna happen in two more years? Will a fifth line be needed to future-proof this infrastructure?” Bill Rankin, a member of the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, asked the council. “… We really need to get this right, and I think building the viaduct is the best way to future-proof the rail lines coming into Diridon.”
Diridon Station currently serves approximately 17,000 daily passengers via light rail, Caltrain, Amtrak, the Capitol Corridor, ACE Train and bus lines.
But within the next couple of decades, BART is scheduled to expand through San Jose to Diridon Station. And eventually, the station could serve as a vital point for high-speed rail to connect Silicon Valley to the Central Valley.
Directly to the east of the new station, Google anticipates that its transit-oriented community featuring office buildings, stores, restaurants and open spaces on an approximately milelong strip in downtown San Jose west of Highway 87 will serve 15,000 to 20,000 of its employees.
In December, the San Jose City Council made two of the first decisions that will guide the massive redevelopment of Diridon Station forward.
The council approved elevating the tracks and platforms at the station and from Julian to Virginia streets to allow for safer and more efficient travel from the east and west sides of the city and positioning entrances on both the east and west sides of the new Diridon Station at two separate concourses on Santa Clara and San Fernando streets.
The initial concept plan — which focuses on how the station will function rather than in-depth architectural plans — also features an additional track and platform at the station that will require significantly widening the station’s footprint to the east. It also envisions that the section of Cahill Street between Santa Clara and San Fernando streets would be restricted to cyclists and pedestrians.