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Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) recently purchased property and trackage rights from Union Pacific Railroad to expand commuter operations.

The authority purchased about 48 acres of UP’s Newhall Yard in the San Jose/Santa Clara area for $37 million. The property could become the future site for a maintenance facility for the Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Corridor — a $4 billion, 16.3-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit extension from the future Warm Springs Station in Fremont to the cities of Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara, Calif.

VTA also will provide Caltrain with land needed to build a center platform at the Santa Clara Station.

The authority also obtained UP trackage rights to enable Caltrain to operate five additional round-trip trains to the city of Gilroy in southern Santa Clara County, doubling total round-trip capacity to 10 trains. VTA agreed to complete $37 million in track improvements — such as adding 8.5 miles of double track, switches, signals, a bridge and grade crossings — by 2010.