Peninsula Commute

Peninsula Commute
West (railroad north) of Santa Clara, a Southern Pacific EMD SD9E #4451 leads a two-car train before the Caltrain takeover
Overview
Owner	San Jose & San Francisco Railroad (1863–1870) Southern Pacific (1870–1980)
Area served	San Francisco Peninsula Santa Clara Valley
Locale	San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara
Transit type	Commuter rail
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	32
Operation
Began operation	1863
Operator(s)	San Francisco & San Jose Railroad (1863–1870) Southern Pacific (1870–1980) Amtrak (1978–1979)
Character	commuter railroad with level crossings partial service on freight lines
Technical
System length	50 mi (80 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Top speed	79 mph (127 km/h)
System map Legend 0.0 0.0 Third and Townsend Depot San Francisco Bayshore Cutoff opened 1907 Tunnel 1 1.9 — 22nd Street Valencia St — 3.4 Tunnel 2 Tunnel 3 Bernal — 4.6 4.1 — Paul Avenue Tunnel 4 San Miguel — 6.9 5.2 — Bayshore Colma — 9.2 Tunnel 5 abandoned 1956 Baden — 12.2 8.6 — Butler Road closed 1983 Tanforan 9.3 — South San Francisco 11.6 14.3 San Bruno 12.0 — Lomita Park closed 1963 13.7 17.0 Millbrae 15.2 — Buri Buri now Broadway Easton closed 1925 16.3 19.2 Oak Grove now Burlingame ( BER 1913–1918 ) 17.9 21.1 San Mateo 18.9 — Hayward Park 20.3 24.0 Beresford now Hillsdale 21.9 25.1 Belmont 23.2 27.0 San Carlos 25.4 28.6 Redwood City to Fremont/Oakland via Dumbarton Cutoff 27.8 30.9 Fair Oaks later Atherton closed 2020 28.9 32.1 Menlo Park 30.1 34.0 Palo Alto 31.8 34.9 Mayfield now California Avenue Mayfield Cutoff 1908–1964 34.8 38.0 Castro Los Altos 36 — 36.1 39.1 Mountain View 38.8 41.9 Murphys now Sunnyvale Monta Vista 41 — 44.3 47.4 Santa Clara 45.7 49.6 College Park Congress Jct 45 — Coast Line reroute after 1935 San Jose Market discontinued 1935 46.9 50.0 San Jose Diridon Vasona Jct 48 — Campbell 51 — Los Gatos 51 — to Gilroy Suntan Special to Santa Cruz to Monterey via Del Monte discontinued 1971 Legend 00.0 00.0 Distance from SF via Bayshore Cutoff Distance from SF via Coast Route (1907–1980) (1863–1907) completed routes abandoned or removed routes stations This diagram: view talk edit

The Peninsula Commute, also known as the Southern Pacific Peninsula or just Peninsula, was the common name for commuter rail service between San Jose, California and San Francisco, California on the San Francisco Peninsula. This service ran as a private, for-profit enterprise beginning in 1863. Due to operating losses, the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) petitioned to discontinue the service in 1977. Subsidies were provided through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in 1980 to continue service, and it was renamed Caltrain.