SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority resumed limited light rail service on Sunday, more than three months after service was shut down following a mass shooting at the agency’s Guadalupe rail yard.
“As we continue to bring back employees safely and compassionately,” the agency said in a statement on its website, “we will update the public on the level of light rail service we can safely continue to provide.”
Trains began operation Sunday at 8 a.m. and was scheduled to continue through 7 p.m., including special post-game service for a San Francisco 49ers game in Santa Clara, Calif.
As of today, the VTA will operate the light rail Orange Line, which connects to Caltrain in Mountain View and BART in Milpitas, from 5:30 a.m. to midnight, with service every 20 minutes until 8 p.m. and every 30 minutes thereafter. It will also operate part of the Green Line, between Civic Center and Old Ironsides, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with trains operating on 20-minute headways until 8 p.m. and at 30-minute intervals thereafter. A First Street bus bridge from Paseo de San Antonio to Baypointe, continuing to the Milpitas Transit Center, will operate every 30 minutes from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Light rail service will be fare-free through Sept. 12. Service on the remaining segments of the Green and Blue lines will return in phases.
The VTA faced a lengthy process to restart service after the May 26 shooting that killed nine employees plus the shooter, including replacement of more than half the employees in its electrical-systems group [see “Santa Clara VTA begins five-stage process …,” Trains News Wire, July 8, 2021].
