Caltrain Awards Project to Upgrade Hillsdale Station

The busy Hillsdale Caltrain Station in San Mateo will be upgraded and consolidated with the nearby Bay Meadows station, as a result of a $4.2 million construction project.

Earlier this month, Caltrain’s board of directors awarded the construction contract to O.C. Jones & Sons of Berkeley. Work is expected to begin in April and continue through the end of the year.

The project’s purpose is to improve safety and station amenities, as well as add more parking at Hillsdale, which is one of Caltrain’s heavily used “Baby Bullet” stations. Parking will be added to the east and west sides of the station, increasing the number of spaces by 150.

Currently, the station has a center platform, which will be eliminated and in its place a center-track fence will be installed. A new platform will be built on the east side of the station, which will include access to Caltrain for people with disabilities.

Once construction is complete, the Bay Meadows stop, which is used primarily during horse-racing season, will be closed.

The southbound platform will be extended northward about 300 feet. The station will have pedestrian crossings, with gates, warning lights and bells, at both the north and south ends of the station, where passengers can cross from one side to the other.

The changed configuration also will allow Caltrain to eliminate the so-called “holdout” rule at Hillsdale, which means that one train has to stop short of the station when another train is there, increasing commute times.

The station will remain open at all times during the construction, which will be done mostly on weekdays. However, some weekend and night work will be required.

Caltrain is a tri-county partnership of San Francisco Municipal Railway, San Mateo County Transit District and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Caltrain operates 86 weekday trains between San Francisco and San Jose, with commute-hour service to Gilroy. A total of 62 trains offer service on weekends.

2/9/05