Mentioned in works by Jack London and Jack Kerouac, the College
Park rail station in San Jose occupies a small place in literary
history. But neither of those writers ever knew about Caltrain, and
trains don
’t run on nostalgia.
Mentioned in works by Jack London and Jack Kerouac, the College Park rail station in San Jose occupies a small place in literary history. But neither of those writers ever knew about Caltrain, and trains don’t run on nostalgia.
More than 100 years after it opened, the College Park station is about to close because it doesn’t figure in to Caltrain’s plans to rescue itself from severe budget shortages. Caltrain staffers have concluded that express trains are the way back to fiscal stability and College Park is in the way.
The station is one of four that Caltrain has threatened with extinction, but the only one located across the street from Bellarmine College Preparatory school and a large group of administrators, parents and students determined to keep the station open. College Park might not have the most riders, they say, but it does exactly what public transit is meant to do – serve a community and keep people out of their cars.
“It’s a matter of what Santa Clara County is trying to accomplish and how Caltrain fits into that,” said Jan Johnson, a Gilroy mother of two Bellarmine students who commute on Caltrain. “If you really want transit that serves a community, there’s no better example than Bellarmine. The impact on the neighborhood if you take the train away is going to be huge.”
Estimates on the number of riders who regularly disembark at College Park range from 200 to 300, almost all of whom are Bellarmine students and staff. According to Bellarmine controller Thomas Gorndt, about 100 of those riders come from South County.
“Bellarmine has been there for 80 years and the property was purchased because of access to the railroad,” Gorndt said.
Parents say that without Caltrain many South County students could not attend Bellarmine. They say the system’s low cost helps lower-income scholarship students get to school, teaches students to respect the environment and is the only safe and reliable way for students to make to it school on time.
Caltrain staff was unm-oved by Bellarmine’s arguments. Caltrain Spokeswoman Jayme Kunz said she agrees that serving communities is the ideal of transit systems, but College Park can simply not attract the number of riders Caltrain needs to balance its budget. A final decision on all changes is expected on April 22.
Matt King covers Santa Clara County for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7240 or mk***@gi************.com.
