Around the Valley

Yesterday, a low floor bus on line 68 was spotted in Morgan Hill at Main and Hale transit center. That bus was crowded and was running late.

According to the A-frames placed at the station, Palo Alto bus transit center will be closed from 10:30am to 4:30pm this Sunday due to the Amgen California bike tour. VTA line 22 and SamTrans KX and 390 will make a detour and stop in the west side of the train station on Quarry Road. VTA line 35 and SamTrans 280 and 281 will stop in the east side of the train station on Lytton Avenue. Service to Stanford Shopping Center on these lines will be canceled on that day.


For the next few months, VTA will continue to operate on a single track between Tamien and Virginia stations as Tamien is undergoing platform retrofit. VTA personnel are located at the crossovers (south of Tamien and north of Virginia) to oversee the single track operations. Along with the personnel is a light rail car at each crossover. These cars act as a place to rest and as a way to transport the crew to and from the crossover.


At San Jose Diridon Station, both MST line 55 and VTA line 168 provide express service to Gilroy. MST is partnering with a vineyard to develop locally grown bio-diesel by planting two kinds of mustard seeds.

Recently, passengers with luggage were spotted waiting on Cahill Street south of San Jose Diridon Station at about 5:00pm. For the last six months, passengers have been waiting at the same spot in the morning to board a Megabus to Los Angeles. Apparently, Megabus adjusted its bus schedule and has added an afternoon stop in San Jose for a bus to Los Angeles.

However, the Megabus website still shows the old schedule in the schedule section. The new trip time is visible only by using the "Search and buy" box. Not a good business practice for a company that wants to compete in a market where people tend to either fly or drive.