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Privately funded light rail station opens in the city
By Jana Seshadri
The first privately funded light rail station in Sunnyvale has opened for business. Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the city of Sunnyvale and Jay Paul Company dedicated the new Moffet Park Light Rail Station in Sunnyvale on Dec. 12.
Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler, Sunnyvale Council member and Chairman of the board of VTA Manuel Valerio, Vice President of Jay Paul Company Tim Hennessey, and officials from Ariba and VTA were among those who rode in on the inaugural train. The train left the Evelyn station in Mountain View at 10:45 a.m. and arrived at the new Moffet Park station a few minutes later.
The station's $5.7 million construction cost was paid by Jay Paul Company as part of its Ariba Plaza Project northwest of the intersection of Route 237 and Mathilda Avenue.
"This is a transit-oriented development project," said Grace Lynch, spokesperson for VTA. "That means that this new station makes public transportation as accessible to people as the closest parking lot. This is also the very first privately funded station."
The station is on VTA's Downtown Mountain View to Milpitas/I-880 Light Rail Line. It's located between the Lockheed Martin and the Bayshore/NASA stations.
Since the station is neither the beginning nor the end of a line, many different dynamics had to be taken into consideration.
Hennessey said he had misgivings about the project initially because the station had to be built while the trains were running.
"Every seven minutes a train would go by," Hennessey said. "A lot of the work had to be done between midnight and 5 a.m."
Hennessey praised the "dedicated and competent" VTA staff and engineering crew, who he said completed this project in record time.
"This is a very exciting development for me," Fowler said.
City officials are involved in planning the city's economic development and mass transit features, Fowler said. According to Fowler, traffic issues rank at the top of Sunnyvale residents' concerns, and this will certainly alleviate that to a certain extent. Fowler also remarked how unique this station is, because it was built with private funds.
"This is very special for me," Valerio said. As chairman of the VTA board and councilman, he said he was happy to see a project of this magnitude and importance being accomplished while in office.
Valerio and Hennessey complimented the efficient and unique teamwork among VTA, Jay Paul Company and Sunnyvale.
"This is a great example of a public/private partnership," Hennessey said.
The station serves a large area, which houses several offices, including Ariba, Interwoven, Lockheed and Onizuka Air Force Base. The station is designed so that the general public and employees can easily access all of the surrounding areas via several paved walkways.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
