City of San Jose is hosting a community meeting to review a housing and mixed use development with up to 440 units of housing and small, 3,000 square foot retail area, near Tamien Caltrain and light rail, on land currently used as a parking lot. Â Given the area’s housing shortage, the transit location is a fine place for housing.
One question is how VTA will replace the 205 parking spaces. VTA’s proposal is to build a parking structure on the other side of the freeway – however that land is currently used for Caltrain parking.  How will parking and station access be maintained during construction?  And how safe and appealing will the routes be, to and from the parking lot, and to and from the station when the new buildings are built?
Also, less parking would be needed if Caltrain service was more frequent to the Capitol and Blossom Hill stations further south. Â The Tamien Station has a high level of driving access, since it effectively acts as a terminal station, since the service frequency for stations further south is so much lower. Â Unlike most Caltrain stations, where only a minority of riders get to the station in a car, Tamien station gets ~70% of its riders from the parking lot, and another ~10% dropped off by car.
The good news is that there is a proposal for more frequent Caltrain service south of Tamien included in the VTA “Call for projects” for funding from the 2016 sales tax. However, the spending plan is not yet set, and the ballot measure has not yet passed.
If you support the idea of housing near transit, that’s also important to say – the region faces a housing shortage that is driving up prices – housing in transit-friendly locations is helpful.
If you’re interested in these issues, the open house is this evening, Elks Lodge 522, Willow Room
444 West Alma Avenue, San Jose, 6-7pm
If you can’t make the meeting, send your thoughts in writing to the City of San Jose, VTA, and Caltrain, and feel free to send us a copy.
elizabeth.schuller@sanjoseca.gov
jennifer.rocci@vta.org
pettys@samtrans.com
friends@friendsofcaltrain.com
What time is the meeting?
6-7pm. also added to the post.
I can’t make this meeting, but I think that one thing that might reduce parking demand at Tamien would be to provide better VTA light rail service. Currently there is an express service during rush hour that skips all stops between Ohlone / Chynoweth and Convention Center. While this speeds up service for northbound commuters from South San Jose, it also skips Tamien. Maybe if we had more express trains that still stopped at Tamien, light rail would be more competitive with park and ride.
This isn’t a bad description of the issues involved, except that it’s not about the Capitol and Blossom Hill stations, it’s more about the people who come up from Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Tamien is the last station on the Caltrain line that has regular service AND lots of parking. Neither Capitol nor Blossom Hill have as much parking. So, people drive from the south to Tamien, park, and take Caltrain north.
Then there is the issue of VTA (Santa Clara County’s transit agency) acting as a land developer, to the exclusion of its charter to provide quality transit service. If it allows the housing to be built in the planned configuration, the most of the parking will be gone, and the agency doesn’t have any concrete plans to bring it back; effectively, VTA will kill any reason for people to take the train from Tamien (no parking).
Then there is the issue of VTA, (Santa Clara County’s transit agency) working as a land developer.
Good point Joe, all light rail needs to stop at Tamien, clearly.
The VTA also needs to realize that thousands of people in SSJ would love to be able to take Caltrain, if there were reasonable service.
Where can one find details on the Call for Projects including more service south of Tamien? This is great news, hopefully a large increase in trains serving Capitol and BH as well as station access improvements.
@Joe Brant
The light rail “efficiency” program envisages Santa Teresa express service ONLY so passengers headed for Tamien would have to transfer to the extended Almaden line at Ohlone Chynoweth, pretty much guaranteeing that anyone who has a car would drive to Tamien…
@Tracy.
– Blossom Hill has 425 parking spaces: http://www.vta.org/getting-around/park-and-ride-lots-blossom-hill-caltrain-station
– Capitol has 378 parking spaces: http://www.vta.org/getting-around/park-and-ride-lots-capitol-caltrain-station
– Tamien has a total of 536 LEGAL parking spaces: http://www.vta.org/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/06912000001g4zmAAA (page 163) but demand is much higher (over 800).
The VTA does plan to build a parking structure on the west side of the freeway http://www.vta.org/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/069A0000001fMGwIAM but there are issues with insufficient capacity after Caltrain electrification and construction staging whereby all the cars currently parked on the west side would have to move to the other side of the freeway during construction of the parking structure.
@Tommy. One of the projects is #T45 (http://vta-sprinter.org/stations/) but it requires cross-platform transfers at Tamien. The Capitol Corridor extension to Salinas will also provide an additional train every hour in each direction.
A commenter writes by email about a new program in Palo Alto where they’re doing a pilot test with LYFT to subsidize first/last mile. That could potentially be another alternative to driving and parking.
Roland, I and most people have never heard of the “Sprinter” idea. Seems silly to introduce yet another separate rail system to our region, especially when the vast majority of current and potential riders want to go to MV, PA, and beyond (i.e. they need Caltrain)
I wonder if/when the Cap Corridor extension will ever happen; that would cover Great America and potentially College Park (good idea) so no need for the “Sprinter”
Tommy,
There would be no need for BART in the east bay if the Capitol Corridor ran every 15 minutes (no plans).
The Sprinter project addresses the following issues:
1) Eliminates the need to extend BART to Santa Clara ($1.5B saving).
2) Frequent and RAPID service (light rail “baby bullets”) between SAP Center, Avaya, SJC, Apple, Levi’s, Related Santa Clara and the future 330-acre Alviso campus http://vta-sprinter.org/2015/07/18/339/.
3) 85/87/101/237 corridors decongestion during peak.
4) Eliminates light rail overcrowding during events @ Levi’s stadium.
5) Potential operation and maintenance by the private sector: http://vta-sprinter.org/2015/10/13/leo-express/.
6) Potential future extensions to Facebook, Cupertino & Gilroy.
7) Eliminates the need for Caltrain diesels south of Tamien after electrification.
Tamien update: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_29072770/san-jose-four-or-five-story-residential-and
Apple Spaceship #2 update: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2015/11/04/exclusiveapple-contemplating-huge-campus-of-up-to.html