Changes ahead for Atherton train station Changes ahead for Atherton train station (February 23, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

A redesign of Atherton's train station is gathering steam, as town officials last week approved a Caltrain plan to change the way passengers board trains.

The $2 million project to convert the station, with its center boarding platform, to a station with separate platforms for northbound and southbound passengers and a fence separating the tracks, would make it similar to the Menlo Park train station.

Besides improving safety, the changes would allow Atherton to accommodate two trains in the station at the same time, said Al Fung, a senior engineer and project manager for Caltrain, at the February 16 Atherton City Council meeting.

Work on the station is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2007, according to Caltrain's timeline.

Because passengers can now cross the tracks in multiple places to reach the center boarding platform, Atherton's station is what's known as a "hold-out," Mr. Fung said. If a train is already in the station, an approaching train coming in the opposite direction must stop outside of the station and wait for it to leave before entering.

The upgrades, which include a gated pedestrian crossing near Fair Oaks Lane, would end the hold-out designation for Atherton and improve the train schedule, he said.

"It helps our operations in terms of train times, and it improves safety because people can't cross willy-nilly anywhere," Mr. Fung said.

Accessibility changes include a wheelchair lift on each platform, visual message system for hearing-impaired passengers, and an upgraded public address system, Mr. Fung said.

"I think these modifications are overkill for our depot," said Rosemary Maulbetsch, a member of the town's Caltrain Corridor Subcommittee. "They need to be scaled down a lot for a small town that tries to hold onto a rural atmosphere."

However, Mr. Fung said regulations require all the modifications planned in order to eliminate Atherton's status as a hold-out station.
Quiet zone?

City Council members discussed other modifications that could piggy-back on the project, such as additional signal arms at railroad grade crossings, in hopes of making Atherton a quiet zone, where train whistles wouldn't be used.

Currently, train whistles are required to activate the flashing lights and signal arms that keep vehicles off the tracks when a train is coming by, said Mr. Fung.

Caltrain officials are awaiting federal legislation clarifying quiet zone rules before they do any work on such improvements, he said.

The station renovation was approved 5-0 as part of the consent calendar.

The council also approved a survey of residents' ridership habits to find out whether train service is important to them.

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