The Green Line starts from the Old Ironsides station, which it shares with the VTA Orange Line. Traveling eastwards on Tasman Drive, the Green Line passes Levi's Stadium and the future Related Santa Clara mega-development. At First Street, it turns south and shares tracks with the Blue Line to downtown San Jose. After the Convention Center stop, it leaves the shared portion of the tracks and heads southwest to the Winchester station in southern Campbell, with a stop at Caltrain and Amtrak'sDiridon Station. The whole route takes approximately one hour.
The route that the Mountain View–Winchester line now runs on is constructed in three different expansion projects: the original Guadalupe line, the Tasman West extension, and the Vasona extension.
Guadalupe line
The trackway between Woz Way in Downtown San Jose and Old Ironsides station is part of the Guadalupe line, the first light rail line constructed in Santa Clara county. The Guadalupe line opened for revenue service on December 11, 1987 originally running from Old Ironsides station to Civic Center station in San Jose. Champion station was not part of the original line; it was added as intermediate stop as part of the Tasman West project. Service on this line was gradually expanded south from Civic Center station as follows:
Service through the downtown mall and onward to the Convention Center station began on July 17, 1988.
Service between Convention Center and Tamien stations began on August 17, 1990.
Service between Tamien and Santa Teresa stations began on April 25, 1991.
Tasman West extension
The Tasman West extension project added the following features to the line as follows:
Champion station added as an infill stop along the existing Guadalupe line trackway.
of trackway and 12 new light rail stations added between the existing Old Ironsides station and the new Downtown Mountain View station.
Baypointe station added just east of the intersection of 1st and Tasman.
After the completion of Tasman West extension and before the completion of Tasman East/Capitol and Vasona extensions, VTA split the light rail system into two main lines: one line running between Baypointe and Downtown Mountain View, the other between Baypointe and Santa Teresa. Passengers transferred between the two lines at the new Baypointe station. Tasman is now the transfer station.
Tasman West extension was constructed with funds from 1996 Measure B sales tax measure.
Vasona extension
Mountain View–Winchester contains the entire Vasona extension from San Fernando station to the southern line terminal, Winchester station,. Vasona extension opened for revenue service on October 1, 2005. It was originally scheduled to open two months earlier on August 1 but was delayed due to a dispute between Federal Railroad Administration and VTA. At issue was whether a waiver was needed from FRA, since the Union Pacific branchline that parallels most of Vasona extension is still actively used on a tri-weekly basis to serve a cement plant in the Cupertino Foothills and a lumber yard in Campbell. A waiver was finally obtained on the condition that all light rail vehicles sound their horns at crossings until "Quiet Zone" improvements are implemented. The Vasona extension was also constructed with funds from 1996 Measure B sales tax measure.
Light Rail Efficiency Project
In 2014, a new storage track and crossover was constructed between Old Ironsides and Reamwood as part of improvements to support events at Levi's Stadium and the future Silicon Valley BART extension. To provide better headways and service reliability, a second track was constructed between Whisman and Downtown Mountain View. Work began in summer 2014 and was completed in late 2015. Evelyn Station was permanently closed in mid-March 2015 as part of track construction.
Possible future expansion
The original Vasona Corridor project called for a -long extension from downtown San Jose to Los Gatos. As completed, Phase 1 of the Vasona Corridor was completed to Winchester, and a Vasona Extension Phase 2, covering the last of the original project along with two stations, was designed but not constructed because a funding source could not be identified. Phase 2 would extend the light rail line westwards from Winchester station to Vasona Junction in eastern Los Gatos. It is expected that Mountain View–Winchester would extend to terminate at Vasona Junction if Phase 2 is built.
2019 reconfiguration
Upon the opening of the Silicon Valley BART extension to Berryessa / North San Jose, Line 902 will be split into the Green Line and the Orange Line. As of early 2019, station signage has begun to reflect the future configuration, displaying line colors rather than terminus icons.
Station stops
Station facilities
Many stations along this line have park-and-ride lots, as well as bike stations, including:
