Orange Line (VTA)

From west to east, the Orange Line starts from Downtown Mountain View station, travels northeast, passing under U.S. Route 101 at Ellis Street, following Mathilda Avenue to Java Drive, briefly travels south crossing State Route 237 and turning east on Tasman Drive, traveling through Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and North San Jose. Tasman Drive becomes Great Mall Parkway in Milpitas and eventually becomes Capitol Avenue in East San Jose. For the rest of the trip, the line follows Great Mall Parkway and Capitol Avenue until it reaches its eastern terminus at Alum Rock station.

The route that the Orange Line now runs on was constructed through three different expansion projects: the original Guadalupe line, the Tasman West extension, and the Tasman East extension.

The trackway between Old Ironsides station and First Street 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 10, 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.^[2][3]

The Tasman West extension project was constructed with funds from the 1996 Measure B sales tax measure. Champion station was the first to open as an infill stop along the existing Guadalupe line trackway, opening March 24, 1997.^[4] On December 17, 1999, 7.6 miles (12.2 km) of trackway and 12 new light rail stations added between the existing Old Ironsides station and the new Downtown Mountain View station. On the same day, Baypointe station opened just east of the intersection of 1st and Tasman.

The first phase of the Tasman East extension opened in May 2001 between Baypointe and Alder stations.^[5][6]

On June 24, 2004, the 8.3-mile (13.4-km) Tasman East/Capitol extension was opened, incorporating 8 new stations. This extension runs from Alder station east along the Great Mall Parkway in Milpitas, then into East San Jose on Capitol Avenue to Alum Rock Transit Center on Alum Rock Avenue. This extension brings service to the Great Mall of the Bay Area in Milpitas. The total cost of this extension was $432.9 million.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8]

Ahead of the opening of the Silicon Valley BART extension to Milpitas station and Berryessa/North San José, the Orange Line was created. Starting in early 2019, station signage was changed reflect the new configuration, displaying line colors rather than terminus icons.^[9]