Milpitas station, also known as Milpitas Transit Center, is an

intermodal transit Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths (and offset the weaknesses) of various transportati ...

station located near the intersection of East Capitol Avenue and

Montague Expressway There are 21 routes assigned to the "G" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "G" zone includes county highways in Monterey County, California, Monterey, San Benito County, California, Sa ...

Milpitas, California Milpitas (Spanish for or little cornfields) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, part of Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, it is bordered by San Jose, California, S ...

, United States. The station is served by the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

lines of

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

(BART), the Orange Line of the

VTA light rail The VTA light rail system serves San Jose, California, San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County, California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and has of network comprising three main lines on stan ...

system, VTA buses, and

AC Transit AC Transit is the main Public transport bus service, bus transit operator in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. AC Transit is the third largest bus operator in California, serving the western portions of Alameda and C ...

buses. The elevated Montague light rail station opened in June 2004. It was renamed Milpitas in December 2019 when the bus plaza and connecting footbridge were opened. The below-grade BART station, constructed as part of the

Silicon Valley BART extension The Silicon Valley BART extension (officially VTA's BART Silicon Valley Extension Program, commonly known as BART Silicon Valley) is an ongoing effort to expand the Green and Orange Line service by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) into Santa Clar ...

, opened in June 2020 along with a parking garage.

History

The VTA Light Rail station opened as ''Montague'' station on June 24, 2004, as part of the Tasman East expansion, originally without any parking spaces. The BART station is the northern of two stations constructed as part of the $2.3 billion phase I of the

, which broke ground in 2012. The complex was built by and is owned by the VTA. Opening was delayed repeatedly from its 2016 completion date. In December 2019, the VTA and

bus station opened, while the light rail station was officially renamed from ''Montague'' to ''Milpitas''. An official ribbon cutting for the BART station was held on June 12, 2020, with service beginning the next day on June 13, 2020. A -long footbridge crosses Montague Expressway on the north side of the station. Construction of the $19.33 million bridge, which connects to the second level of the garage, began in 2019; it opened in July 2021.

Station layout

The Milpitas station complex is located near the intersection of East Capitol Avenue and the

, near the south border of Milpitas. The BART tracks run roughly north–south in a trench below street level, with two -long

side platforms A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a railway platform, platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or bus rapid transit, transitway. A st ...

. The station building is approximately , with an undulating roofline and three large circular

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...

s. Entrances are on the east and west sides of the station building, near its southern end, leading to a central corridor. Fare control areas are on opposite sides of the corridor; both have stairs and escalators to the platform, with elevators in the north fare control area. The BART station features

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows by BJ Katz and Chris Klein, titled ''Ethos of Imagination'', above the main entrance. Twenty support columns along the platforms are encased in ceramic tiles by Amy Trachtenberg, titled ''Ecstatic Voyaging'', patterned after the ''

ikat ''Ikat'' (literally "to bind" in Malayo-Polynesian languages) is a dyeing technique from Southeast Asia used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. In Southeast Asia, where it is th ...

'' dyeing technique. The light rail tracks are elevated above East Capitol Avenue, running approximately northwest–southeast. A mezzanine is located under the single

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

, with stairs and an elevator to the median of East Capitol Avenue at South Milpitas Boulevard. A pedestrian bridge leads from the light rail mezzanine northwest to the west side of the BART building where escalators and an elevator lead to the plaza. The bus plaza is located west of the BART station building. It is served by nine VTA bus routes (, , , , , , , , and ) and one

route ( 217); it serves as a transfer point between the two bus systems. It is the only BART station served by both VTA and AC Transit, and the only VTA light rail station served by AC Transit. The six-story, 1,631 space paid parking garage is located east of the BART building. A paid 185-space indoor bike parking structure is located underneath the footbridge; free bike racks are dispersed around the station. File:Milpitas BART entrance.jpg, BART faregates File:Milpitas BART Station Platform.jpg, BART station platform File:Milpitas bus plaza from light rail station, June 2020.JPG, Bus plaza and BART station File:Montague station from ground level, March 2018.JPG, Light rail station from below File:VTA Light Rail train at Milpitas station.jpg, Light rail platform

References

External links

* *
Milpitas Transit Center Meet the Station

Milpitas Transit Center & BART Station
project website {{Milpitas, California Railway stations in the United States opened in 2020 Stations on the Orange Line (BART) Stations on the Green Line (BART) Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in Santa Clara County, California Buildings and structures in Milpitas, California Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 2004 2004 establishments in California Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bus stations 2020 establishments in California