Hayward station is an

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

intercity train station in

Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda Coun ...

, United States. It is served by seven daily round trips of the ''

Capitol Corridor The ''Capitol Corridor'' is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two points most trains operate between, San ...

'' route. The station has two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s serving the main track and a passing siding; most trains use the platform on the main track. Hayward station opened as an

infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train serv ...

on May 29, 1997; the town had previously seen railroad service from 1865 to 1941.

History

Railroad service in Haywards (later Hayward) began with the

San Francisco and Alameda Railroad The San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A) was a short-lived railroad company in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. The railroad line opened 1864–1865 from Alameda Terminal on Alameda Island to Hayward, California, with ferry ...

in August 1865. The terminal station was located at Watkins Street and D Street in downtown Haywards. It was destroyed in the

1868 Hayward earthquake The 1868 Hayward earthquake occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States on October 21. With an estimated moment magnitude of 6.3–6.7 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''), it was the most recent large ear ...

, which bankrupted the railroad. The line was taken over in 1869 by the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

(CP). The CP built its own line (part of the

First transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

) and station slightly to the west, and abandoned the original line south of

San Leandro San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the sout ...

in 1873. Transcontinental service was shifted from the CP to a northern route on the

California Pacific Railroad The California Pacific Railroad Company (abbreviated Cal. P. R. R. or Cal-P) was incorporated in 1865 at San Francisco, California as the California Pacific ''Rail Road'' Company. It was renamed the California Pacific Railroad ''Extension'' Compan ...

in 1879. The

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

(SP) leased the CP in 1885 and constructed a two-story wood station of standard design at Hayward. Long-distance service to the south was switched to the Coast Line around 1909, but local passenger service to Hayward continued until 1941. Freight service continued on the line, and the station remained intact until it was destroyed by a 1982 fire.

'' Capitols'' (later ''Capitol Corridor'') service between Sacramento and San Jose began in 1991; it ran through Hayward without stopping. After the success of other

s on the line, a station at Hayward was opened on May 29, 1997. A station shelter was constructed in the Arts and Crafts style. A siding track with a rarely-used second platform was added around 2006. A 2016-released Vision Plan called for ''Capitol Corridor'' trains to be rerouted over the

Coast Subdivision The Coast Line is a railroad line between Burbank, California and the San Francisco Bay Area, roughly along the Pacific Coast. It is the shortest rail route between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. History Predecessors The San Francisco and San ...

, which is used by less freight service. Hayward station would be closed under that plan.

Bus connections

The station is served by three

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

local bus routes: route 34 runs adjacent to the station on Meekland Avenue, while routes 56 and 93 run on A Street. All three routes run to the larger bus terminal at Hayward BART station.

References

External links

{{Hayward, California, state=collapsed Amtrak stations in Alameda County, California Buildings and structures in Hayward, California Railway stations in the United States opened in 1997 Transportation in Hayward, California Railway stations closed in 1941