San Mateo, Caltrain Officials Celebrate 25th Ave. Station Upgrade

SAN MATEO, CA — Caltrain last week celebrated the completion of a grade separation project at the 25th Avenue station with speeches by local officials and a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The improvements included a new elevated Caltrain station at Hillsdale that reopened in April and bike safety implementations. Officials hope that the project, which separated the Caltrain racks from the road, improves safety and traffic flow and reduces train noise for residents, and that the new Hillsdale Station provides easier access to the Bay Meadows racetrack and Hillsdale Shopping Center.

“I can’t tell you how much time I spend thinking about grade separations,” said state Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park). “Grade separations are not always sexy. But they’re so critical to the future of the Peninsula.”

Construction for the $206 million project began in 2017 and was a result of funding from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, California High Speed Rail Authority, Caltrans and San Mateo.

“I can’t think of many infrastructure projects that the TA funds that are more complex to design, to fund and to build than creating a grade separation project on 150 year old active, urban railroad in a highly dense region,” said Emily Beach, the chairperson of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority and a Burlingame city councilmember. “It is a feat of engineering and collaboration second-to-none.”

Beach added that the county is working on four more grade separation projects, and that three of them are among California’s 10 most dangerous roadway and railway crossings to fix.

“Grade separations are the proven way to make rail travel safer for our communities,” Beach said.