San Mateo Replacement Parking Track

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Overview

The San Mateo Replacement Parking Track and Neighborhood Enhancement Project will replace the former San Mateo parking track that was removed to facilitate construction of the 25th Avenue Grade Separation Project. The replacement parking track will be located between 10th and 14th Avenues on the Caltrain right-of-way along the railroad tracks. The project is anticipated to be awarded a construction contract by Caltrain in December 2023, with construction expected to begin in early 2024.  

Community input in 2019 and 2020 gave important guidance to the project and the following neighborhood enhancement elements will be implemented as part of the project: 

• A 12 foot enhancement wall along Railroad Avenue between 10th and 14th Avenues will be built  
• Creeping fig vegetation will be planted along the enhancement wall 
• Once built, no vehicular access to the parking track will occur except at 9th Avenue, as the enhancement wall will block the current access at 10th and 14th Avenues
• Any trees removed for the enhancement wall will be replaced on a one-for-one basis. Every effort will be made to plant the replacement trees on the project site to the extent possible.

A parking track is a temporary storage space for train equipment that allows for efficient use of limited work times at sites elsewhere along the tracks to keep the railroad functioning properly. The purpose of a parking track is only to temporarily park or store equipment. It will not be used as an active maintenance or construction site. The anticipated use of the San Mateo parking track is approximately once a month.

The former San Mateo Parking Track was in existence prior to Caltrain becoming the operator of passenger service. Previously located in the Bay Meadows area, it was used by Caltrain for 25 years until the grade separation project--which improved safety and traffic flow;  separated the train tracks from the road at 25th Avenue; created two new east-west connections at 28th and 31st Avenues; and built a new Hillsdale Station to better serve the community--necessitated its removal.  

There are over a dozen parking tracks distributed in residential and commercial areas along the corridor. There is only one maintenance yard, which is a large 20-acre operation and maintenance facility that is located in San Jose (see photos of existing parking tracks and the maintenance yard).