Destination Guides > North America > USA > West Coast > California > San Jose & Silicon Valley > Local Transport
San Jose & Silicon Valley
Local Transport
San Jose and the Silicon Valley has a good public transport system that is comprised of buses, light rail and suburban trains.
BUS & LIGHT RAIL
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (website www.vta.org) runs bus and light rail services in the Valley. There are three light rail lines that run through downtown San Jose plus Santa Clara and parts of Sunnyvale. Buses serve virtually everywhere else in Silicon Valley that is worth visiting.
The standard one-way fare is $1.75 for a ride on light rail and regular buses or $3 for express buses. A day pass costs $5 ($10 for an express bus day pass).
SUBURBAN TRAIN
Silicon Valley is served by two suburban train networks; Caltrain and ACE (Altamont Commuter Express).
ACE (website www.acerail.com) runs between San Jose and Stockton, with connections to San Francisco's BART trains at Pleasanton. ACE stations in Silicon Valley are in San Jose, Santa Clara and Great America. The fare between San Jose and Great America is $3.25.
Caltrain (website www.caltrain.org) is a much more useful service than ACE and most travellers find this the easiest way to travel between San Francisco and the cities in Silicon Valley. Caltrain trains run between San Francisco and San Jose stopping at most places in the Valley with stations in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Stanford, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. One-way tickets start at $2.25 and go up to $7.50 for the journey between San Francisco and San Jose. A day pass valid for one zone is $4.50 and a four-zone day pass - handy for a day trip from San Francisco - costs $15.
