Visualizing Diridon Station as a Norther California Regional Transit Hub and World Class Destination

Some readers may have visited Grand Central Terminal in New York City or taken the Eurostar train from the grand St. Pancras Station in London, Englad to Gare du Nord in Paris, France. The excitement of travel and the awe inspiring sense of place and of history is an invaluable part of life more people should experience. Such locations exist all over the world from India to Japan.


San Jose is ready to be such a destination and transit point.  In recent years, Silicon Valley's center of gravity has shifted south from Palo Alto to San Jose, and nothing evokes this more than the news that the grandfather of Silicon Valley, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, will be moving its world headquarters from Palo Alto to North San Jose later this year.  This comes on the  heels of news Google is now in the planning stages for development of a mega transit village centered on Diridon Station in the core of San Jose.  Expect many more announcements of this type in coming months as other smaller tech players follow such anchoring companies to San Jose.


Will this mean San Jose automatically develops in a way that is favorable to pedestrian friendly access to downtown neighborhoods and transit becomes a more dominant mode of transportation for the South Bay?  No, the only way this will occur is through the efforts of grass roots organizations, neighborhood associations, business leadership, and government agencies working together.


I ran across a few interesting foregleams of what an integrated transit network in the Bay Area might look like.  The first one is from the Future Travel site Bay Area 2050. Related visions for integrated bay area transit are SPUR's map for what the entire metro area transit map may look like Potential Bay Area Transit Network Map and an easy to understand integrated map of all area rail transit options Bay Area Rail Map.


Still, even if most or all of the area planned transit extensions occur, my focus is on how development of central downtown San Jose is developed in a way which inspires awe and imbues our spirits with inspiration.  Look for more articles further expanding on this and providing images and video from current terminals around the world.


San Jose is the capital of the world's technology sector, and it is high time we apply innovation and futuristic solutions as we create a world class destination California can be proud of.