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The VTA recently held several more public meetings regarding a transit corridor stretching from Downtown San Jose to the East Valley areas of San Jose. These open houses meetings involved discussions about:

• Light Rail from Downtown San Jose to the future Capitol Avenue LRT line, generally along Santa Clara Street and Alum Rock Avenue.
• LRT on the entire length of Capitol Expressway from the end of the future Capitol LRT near Alum Rock Avenue to the Guadalupe LRT line (Highway 87).
• Bus Rapid Transit (buses in dedicated lanes or right-of-way with stops similar to light rail) on Monterey Highway from Downtown San Jose to the Guadalupe LRT line at Santa Teresa LRT station.

Public meetings and open houses for this stage have just concluded.

Proposed Stations of the Capitol Expressway/Santa Clara-Alum Rock LRT lines (from South to North)

• Capital Guadalupe LRT station
• Vista Park Drive/Capitol
• Monterrey Hwy/Capitol (connection to Caltrain)
• Senter/Capitol
• McLaughlin/Capital
• King Rd./Capitol
• Henan Blvd./Capitol
• Eastridge Mall (at the transit center or along Capitol Expressway?)
• Ocala/Capitol
• Story Rd./Capitol
• Alum Rock/Capitol (connection for the Capitol/Tasman East LRT proposed extension)

The proposed line makes a left at Alum Rock Avenue (becoming the Santa Clara-Alum Rock LRT line) and then makes the following stops:

• Sierra Vista Place
• Scharff Avenue
• Sunset Avenue
• Mexican Heritage Plaza
• North 33th Street

After crossing US 101, Alum Rock Avenue turns into East Santa Clara Street.  The proposed LRT line will then make the following stops:

• North/South 28th Street (Five Wounds Church)
• North/South 21st Street
• North/South 15th Street (San Jose Medical Center)
• North/South 10th/11th Streets (at the proposed San Jose Civic Plaza)

Routing from East Santa Clara Street and the last station will go one of two ways (or more) depending on public input:

• Turn near Civic Plaza at around 1th Street, with a stop at the San Jose State University area, then go down West San Fernando Street to Highway 87 where it would connect to Vasona LRT, then terminate at San Jose Diridon station.
• Keep going straight down Santa Clara Street (with a stop at the center of the proposed San Jose Civic Plaza) with a stop between 1st and 2nd streets.  The route would then turn left at Park Street, run down Park Street to about West San Fernando Street to Hwy. 87 where it would connect to Vasona LRT, then terminate at San Jose Diridon station.

The key here is to ensure the best route is chosen to obtain the most riders, as well as guarantee the most connections between VTA buses and the current Guadalupe LRT line.

Things to look for at the Downtown/East Valley open houses

The founder of the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union (Eugene Bradley) had the chance to attend the open house at Eastridge Mall in San Jose during the first round of meetings and open houses in May 2001. There was a display showing two alignments for Downtown San Jose LRT: one from the Children's Discovery Museum at Woz Way, along San Fernando Street, past the library behind the proposed San Jose Civic Plaza, and then turning at around South 10th Street up to Santa Clara Street/Alum Rock Avenue to Capitol Avenue. The other alignment had LRT going down W. San Carlos Street, turning left at Park Avenue, turning right on Santa Clara Street and continuing down Santa Clara Street past the center of the proposed Civic Plaza to Capitol Avenue.

There was a fill-in for what we thought of the various proposed stations, and whether or not they are spaced too far or too close to provide adequate service.  We have that fill-in on our website; see below for details.

There were several other things that were of note:

• No listing of the proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) stops along Monterey Highway was available for display or public review!
• There are four (4) proposed LRT stops along Santa Clara Street between North 1st Street and US 101 in San Jose (about a one mile distance).  There are five (5) proposed LRT stops along Alum Rock Avenue between US 101 and Capitol Avenue.
• A proposed LRT station is on Capitol Expressway, south of Ocala.  Considering that Reid-Hillview Airport and Raging Waters (with Lake Cunningham Park) are nearby, this station should be moved to the entrance to Reid-Hillview Airport.  At the same time, a "northwest" entrance to Raging Waters/Lake Cunningham Park can be built to accomodate LRT passengers to this theme park.
• The proposed Eastridge LRT station has it right in the median of Capitol Expressway.  How will it integrate with the Eastridge Transit Center?  Will pedestrians have to cross Capitol Expressway to connect between buses and LRT?  The proposed Eastridge LRT needs to be integrated with the current Eastridge Transit Center for safe, timely connections between VTA buses and LRT.
• Three words for the proposed Monterrey Highway LRT station: Lick Mill South.  The proposed LRT station is three blocks south of the current Capitol Caltrain station.  To ensure connections between the proposed Monterrey Highway LRT station and Caltrain, the current Capitol Caltrain station needs to be moved underneath Capitol Expressway and ramps/stairs/elevators be constructed to help passengers connect between LRT and Caltrain.  The same mistake VTA planners made for Lick Mill LRT - where ACE and Amtrak Capitol Corridor must walk up a flight of stairs to Tasman then walk about 500 feet downhill to access Tasman West LRT - must not be repeated for the proposed Monterrey Highway LRT station.  The ease and ability to connect between transit modes must be top priority at this proposed LRT station.
• What will the turnback method be for the Capitol LRT station (the end of the line for the Downtown/East Valley LRT line)?  It needs to be integrated with the current Guadalupe LRT as well as VTA bus lines 37, 67, and 70 (if this line will still operate during and after this LRT extension is completed).

What If I Can't Come to the Open Houses Or To the Public Meetings?

1. Bookmark this page for future reference (and additional news!)
2. Visit VTA's proposed Downtown/East Valley LRT webpages.
3. Download VTA's Comment Card on the project (372K Visioneer self-viewing executable) and send by regular mail to the following address:


Gail Price, Project Manager
VTA Planning and Programming Department
3331 North First Street
San Jose, CA  95134-1906

Make sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

4. Send in your comments about the Downtown/East Valley LRT/Bus Rapid Transit project by email to either downtown.eastvalley@vta.org and/or the project manager, Gail Price, at gail.price@vta.org.

More news on the Downtown/East Valley LRT and Bus Rapid Transit corridor will come to this page (sometimes "off the streets") as soon as we get it.

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