San José Diridon Station stands on a rail site first used in 1888, when the narrow gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad began using the small wooden West San Jose Depot on land purchased from and transferred to Southern Pacific Railroad. The present station was built in 1931 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. By the late 1970s, use of the station and commuter service was declining. Peninsula Transportation Alternative Project studies led by Supervisors Gerr Steinberg, Rebecca Morgan, and Rodney J. “Rod” Diridon resulted in the eventual purchase of the line and station by the California Department of Transportation. Beginning in 1973, Diridon, the son of a Southern Pacific railroad brakeman, consistently led efforts to save the service and depot, chaired the studies, helped found an unclear organization, chaired the Save Peninsula Area Rail Commute Committee and Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and supported the public ownership and upgrade. During 23 years in elected office, he chaired the Board of Supervisors and Transit District Board, chaired the Guadalupe Corridor Light Rail and five other rail projects, including the Vasona Corridor Project that will bring light rail to this station, and led the 1975 and 1992 transit tax elections as well as national and international transit organizations. Authentically restored to its original grandeur by the California Department of Transportation, the station was rededicated on December 8, 1994, was to be transferred to the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, and had been placed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 1, 1994; in Santa Clara County, Rod Diridon is known as “Mr. Transportation.”
