Gilroy station

The first Gilroy station, similar to the depot still extant at Santa Clara, opened on April 8, 1869 under the Santa Clara & Pajaro Valley Railroad.[3][2]^:6 A water tower, turntable, and three-stall engine house were built in 1882.[3]

The original station was replaced with a two-story Italian Renaissance structure—framed with local redwood and covered in cement plaster—in 1917 by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Service reductions began in 1929; the engine house was closed in 1934, though the turntable remained in use through the 1950s.[3] The final service to the station was the Del Monte, which ran until April 30, 1971.[3][5][6] Amtrak intercity service, including the Coast Starlight, passed through the station without stopping.

Garlic Train at Gilroy in 2018

On July 1, 1992, two daily Caltrain round trips were extended from San Jose Diridon station to Gilroy. This was increased to four daily round trips with the opening of a layover yard adjacent to the station in February 1994.[3] In 1998, the city restored the station building as the centerpiece of the $2.8 million Gilroy Transit Center, which also included parking lots and a bus plaza. One waiting room was reopened for use by Greyhound.[3] In July 2005, Caltrain reduced service to three daily round trips.[3]

Even before 1992, Caltrain operated a special limited-stop train from San Francisco to Gilroy on the weekend of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, with shuttle buses between the station and the festival. This service ended in 2002 when Caltrain temporarily suspended all weekend train service for the CTX project, and was not resumed when weekend service was restored in 2004. The Golden Gate Railroad Museum chartered weekend trains to Gilroy during the festival for a few years, but those charters were later discontinued.[7] The "Garlic Train" resumed service beginning with the 2013 Garlic Festival.[8]

The station was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019 as Gilroy Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.[9]

The Road Repair and Accountability Act provided funding for an extension of Caltrain service to Salinas station, followed by Amtrak Capitol Corridor service later.[10] The dead-end platform track at Gilroy station will be extended south to reconnect with the mainline.[11]

The planned California High-Speed Rail system will have a station in Gilroy. Two sites are under consideration: the existing Gilroy station, and a currently undeveloped area northeast of the city center (east of Gilroy Premium Outlets).[12] The High Speed Rail Authority identified an at-grade option at the existing station as their preferred alternative in 2020.[13]