Menlo Park is the Caltrain station with the oldest depot. The current Victorian depot opened in 1867 just four years after service began to Menlo Park on October 18, 1863. It has been modified a bit over the years. In 1959 SP put walls along the shelter area — that still exists today as the main platform waiting room — and sold the depot to the city of Menlo Park that has leased the building to be the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce to this day. It was added to the national register of historic places in 1974. The depot is painted a cream color with white trim and shingled roofs. Today Menlo Park is an important Caltrain station and receives service from most trains (nearly every limited one), it and Redwood City are the transfer points between the zone segment service (where passengers must wait 6 minutes during peak hours to get between all intermediate stops) towards San Francisco during the morning rush hour and from S.F. during the even rush hour (during the opposite rush hours the transfer stops are Redwood City and San Carlos). In the rush hour directions (to San Jose, AM, from PM) that Menlo Park isn't a transfer stop a few Baby Bullet Express trains stop in the station. The platforms have both mini-high ramps for bridgeplate boarding to Bombardier BiLevel Cars plus the required wheelchair lift for wheelchair boarding to the Galley Cars. The edges are fully compliant with ADA tactile warning strips. The platform surfaces are not concrete but mainly pinkish-red paving stones that compliment the historic depot nicely.
The station has two side platforms for the two-track line. The platforms begin at the grade crossing of Oak Grove Avenue and run southeast ending with a pedestrian grade crossing a short ways before the grade crossing of Ravenswood Avenue. The historic station house is in the middle of the station along the San Jose-bound platform and next to it is a plaza with a modern clock tower held up by four pillars designed in the same style as the depot. TVMs are located in the small enclosed on three sides waiting area with windows and benches that was originally just a canopied porch that extended from the depot until inclosed by the SP when they closed the agency. The lampposts along the platforms are all a light brown color like the depot. This platform has a relatively small amount of parking with 115 spaces in the area between the platform and parallel Merrill Street. In the parking lot (towards the southern end) along the street, not the platform is a enclosed Bicycle Shelter. This light brown structure is partially a building with windows partially fenced off like a cage for bikes and is in the same style as the historic station house. The San Francisco-bound platform is directly along Alma Street (with a line of railroad angled parking spaces). It has minimal amenities except for modern pink bus stop style shelters most covering benches, one covering two more vending machines.
All Photos taken on 12 June, 2013
Atherton