The Green Line is a
light rail line in
Santa Clara County, California, and part of the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail system. It serves 26 stations in the cities of
Santa Clara,
San Jose, and
Campbell, traveling between
Old Ironsides and
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
stations. The line connects
Levi's Stadium,
San Jose International Airport (via a bus connection),
Downtown San Jose,
San Jose State University,
SAP Center, and
Diridon station. It runs for 20 hours per day on weekdays, with
headways of 15 minutes for most of the day. On weekends, train run at 20 minute headways for most of the day. After around 8pm on weekdays and weekends trains run at 30 minute headways.
Route description
The Green Line starts from the
Old Ironsides station in Santa Clara, where it shares service with the
Orange Line. Traveling eastwards on Tasman Drive, the Green Line passes Levi's Stadium and the future Related Santa Clara mega-development. At First Street, it turns south and shares tracks with the
Blue Line to
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
San Jose. After the
Convention Center
A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...
stop, it leaves the shared portion of the tracks and heads southwest to the
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
station in southern
Campbell, with a stop at
Caltrain and
Amtrak's Diridon Station. The whole route takes approximately one hour.
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 Guadalupe 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 the Guadalupe line, the first light rail line constructed in Santa Clara county. The Guadalupe line opened for revenue service on December 11, 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:
*Service through the downtown mall and onward to the
Convention Center
A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...
station began on July 17, 1988.
*Service between Convention Center and
Tamien stations began on August 17, 1990.
*Service between Tamien and
Santa Teresa stations began on April 25, 1991.
Tasman West extension
The Tasman West extension project added the following features to the line as follows:
*
Champion station added as an infill stop along the existing Guadalupe line trackway (Station opened March 24, 1997).
* of trackway and 12 new light rail stations added between the existing
Old Ironsides station and the new
Downtown Mountain View station. (Opened December 17, 1999.)
*
Baypointe station added just east of the intersection of 1st and Tasman. (Opened December 17, 1999.)
:''Baypointe station is no longer served by this line due to a line reconfiguration implemented in August 2005.''
*After the completion of Tasman West extension and before the completion of Tasman East/Capitol and Vasona extensions, VTA split the light rail system into two main lines: one line running between Baypointe and Downtown Mountain View, the other between Baypointe and
Santa Teresa. Passengers transferred between the two lines at the new Baypointe station.
Tasman
Tasman most often refers to Abel Tasman (1603–1659), Dutch explorer.
Tasman may also refer to:
Animals and plants
* Tasman booby
* Tasman flax-lily
* Tasman parakeet (disambiguation)
* Tasman starling
* Tasman whale
People
* Tasman (name), ...
is now the transfer station.
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 San Fernando station may refer to:
* San Fernando station (Pampanga), a defunct railway station in San Fernando City, Pampanga, Philippines
* San Fernando U station, a defunct PNR station in San Fernando City, La Union, Philippines (see references ...
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 was 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 the
Permanente Quarry
The Permanente Quarry is a limestone quarry in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County, California, just west of Cupertino, California. The quarry is a limestone and aggregate mining operation and cement plant, owned by Lehigh Southwest Cem ...
cement plant in the Cupertino Foothills and a lumber yard in Campbell. 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. The 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 was constructed between Whisman and Downtown Mountain View. Work began in summer 2014 and was completed in late 2015. Evelyn Station was permanently closed in mid-March 2015 as part of track construction.
2019 reconfiguration
Upon the opening of the Silicon Valley BART extension to Berryessa / North San Jose, Line 902 will be split into the Green Line (Old Ironsides -Winchester) and the Orange Line (Mountain View - Alum Rock). As of early 2019, station signage has begun to reflect the future configuration, displaying line colors rather than terminus icons.
Station stops
Station facilities
Many stations along this line have
park-and-ride lots (labeled as

), as well as bike stations (labeled as

), including:
* Lick Mill (at Great America Station:

)
* River Oaks

— also the stop for VTA headquarters
* San Fernando

* San Jose Diridon

* Bascom

* Winchester
References
External links
VTA Site Route Information
{{Santa Clara VTA
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail lines