Atherton station

Atherton station is a former Caltrain station in Atherton, California. The station had one side platform and one island platform serving the two tracks of the Peninsula Subdivision, with a concrete and wooden shelter on the west side of the tracks. The station opened by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1866 as Fair Oaks and was renamed Atherton in 1912. Caltrain cut weekday service to the station in 2005 due to low ridership and a hold-out rule that prohibited two trains from being at the station simultaneously. Weekend service continued until December 2020.

Atherton
A southbound train at Atherton station in December 2020
Location	1 Dinkelspiel Station Lane Atherton, California
Coordinates	37°27′51″N 122°11′50″W
Owned by	Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board
Line(s)	Peninsula Subdivision[1]
Platforms	1 side platform, 1 island platform
Tracks	2
Other information
Fare zone	3
History
Opened	c. 1866
Closed	December 19, 2020[2]
Rebuilt	1913, 1954, 1990[3][4]
Previous names	Fair Oaks (until 1912)
Passengers
2019	114 (daily average)[5]
Former services
Preceding station Caltrain Following station Redwood City toward San Francisco Local Until 2020 Menlo Park toward San Jose Diridon Preceding station Southern Pacific Railroad Following station Redwood City toward San Francisco Coast Line Menlo Park toward Los Angeles San Carlos toward San Francisco Del Monte Until 1971 Palo Alto toward Monterey
Location

History

Atherton station in 1971

The station shelter in 2012

The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad opened from San Francisco to Mayfield in 1863, and to San Jose the next year. A flag stop at Fair Oaks was in use by 1866.[6] The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) took over the line in 1870. The station was renamed Atherton after Faxon Atherton in 1912, eleven years prior to the incorporation of the town under that name.[3]

The SP replaced the original wooden shelter with a larger shelter in 1913. The new structure had a terra cotta tile roof with redwood framing supported by Tuscan concrete columns. Three sides were enclosed by glass in 1916, and the fourth by 1939. Glass-walled extensions were added in 1954, with the track-facing side of the original shelter again open.[3]

Atherton was served by the Del Monte until 1971; SP Peninsula Commute service was taken over by Caltrain in the 1980s. The station was surveyed in 1983 for potential inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places; it was ruled ineligible due to the 1954 modifications.[4][7] The shelter was rebuilt in 1990; all materials except the concrete columns were replaced. The structure was briefly painted in SP yellow, but quickly repainted in a muted beige due to resident complaints. The portion of the station platform north of the Fair Oaks Lane grade crossing was abandoned at that time so that stopped trains would not block the crossing.[3] The building was damaged by a fire in the 1990s and another in April 2007.[4]

Weekday service to Atherton station was discontinued in 2005, with Caltrain citing low ridership, operational challenges, and the need to save money due to a projected budget shortfall. In February 2005, just before service was discontinued, the station saw less than 122 passenger boardings per day.[8] Due to the older narrow center platform configuration, the station was subject to a hold-out rule, preventing other trains from stopping or passing through when a train was serving the station.[9] Caltrain offered a shuttle bus from Atherton station to Redwood City station; it was discontinued on July 1, 2007, due to low ridership.[10]

In July 2017, Caltrain committed to restoring weekday service once electrification of the corridor had been completed.[11] However, on January 8, 2020, Caltrain proposed permanently closing the station. The city of Atherton tentatively endorsed the proposal on January 15.[5] The station would have required a $30 million renovation to build side platforms to allow the hold out rule to be removed.[9] On November 5, the city of Atherton and the Caltrain Board came to an agreement to close the station.[9] The final day of service to Atherton station was Sunday, December 13, 2020; a schedule change on December 14 eliminated service to Atherton effective the weekend of December 19–20.[2] After the closure, Caltrain will remove the station's center boarding platform, install a fence along the right-of-way, and install new four-quadrant crossing gates at Watkins Avenue.[9]

References

1. SMA Rail Consulting (April 2016). "California Passenger Rail Network Schematics" (PDF). California Department of Transportation. p. 13.
2. "Caltrain Implements New Service Changes and Permanently Closes Atherton Station" (Press release). Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board. December 7, 2020.
3. Duncan, Mark (October 4, 2005). "The San Francisco Peninsula Railroad Passenger Service: Past, Present, and Future" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 18, 2018.
4. Swartz, Angela (March 11, 2020). "A fond farewell to Atherton's train station". The Almanac. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
5. "Proposed Closure of the Atherton Station Virtual Community Meeting" (PDF). Caltrain. July 29, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
6. "History of Atherton". Atherton, CA. Town of Atherton. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
7. Origer, Janine M. (December 2014). "Cultural Resources Study for the Atherton Civic Center Master Plan". Civic Center Master Plan Draft EIR. City of Atherton.
8. "Caltrain Weekday Station Passenger Boardings - 1992 & 1995 through 2007". Caltrain. Archived from the original on October 7, 2007. Retrieved August 27, 2007.
9. Driscoll, Curtis (November 7, 2020). "Caltrain votes to close Atherton's station". San Mateo Daily Journal. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020.
10. "Atherton Shuttle to be Discontinued July 1, 2007". Caltrain. June 14, 2007. Archived from the original on October 10, 2007.
11. Wood, Barbara (July 26, 2017). "Atherton: Caltrain will soon cut trees to install electric wires". Almanac News. Retrieved July 31, 2017.

External links

Media related to Atherton station at Wikimedia Commons

• Caltrain: Atherton Station, Proposed Closure of Atherton Caltrain Station