Caltrain to mark 150-year milestone

On Saturday, Caltrain officials will kick off a year-long celebration marking 150 years of service between San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.

The celebration will begin with a re-enactment of a historic picnic that occurred in October 1863 near Menlo Park to mark the completion of the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad's line to San Jose, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

Caltrain is the oldest passenger railroad in the West that's still operating, they said. Built by the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad, it subsequently was absorbed by the Southern Pacific, which operated the Peninsula Commute Service for more than 100 years. A transition to public ownership began in the 1980s, first under the state of California and then by the three-county Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which has owned and operated Caltrain since 1992.

Seven Caltrain depots are on the National Register of Historic Places: Millbrae, Burlingame, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and San Jose Diridon. Four depots were built in the 1800s.