Palo Alto Caltrain station

Palo Alto station is where most visitors first set foot in the city. It sits at 95 University Avenue, right where downtown's main street dips under the railroad and turns into Palm Drive on the Stanford side. Step off a train and you can be at a cafe on University Avenue in three minutes or on a free shuttle to the Stanford campus in five.

This page covers the station itself: the depot, the bus plaza next to it, parking, bike parking, accessibility and what is within walking distance. For fares, Clipper and the rules for bikes on board, see our main guide to riding Caltrain. The figures below come from Caltrain's Palo Alto station page as of late October 2026.

The 1941 depot

The building on the platform is a piece of railroad history. Southern Pacific opened it on January 25, 1941, to a design by company architect John H. Christie. The style is Streamline Moderne, with long horizontal lines and rounded corners that echo the railroad's Daylight streamliner trains of the same era. Caltrain notes that it is one of the rare depots built at the end of the Depression.

The depot joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It is one of seven Caltrain depots on the register, alongside Millbrae, Burlingame, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Santa Clara and San Jose Diridon. Caltrain's historic stations page points out that no two of the seven look alike. The contrast is easy to see if you ride one stop north to the Victorian depot at Menlo Park station.

Most riders pass the depot without a second glance on the way to the platform. Slow down for a minute. The building faces the bus plaza on one side and the tracks on the other. Its streamlined profile is best seen from the plaza. University Avenue passes under the tracks right beside it, which is how people on foot get between downtown and the station.

Which trains stop here

Every type of Caltrain stops at Palo Alto. That is the main reason to use this station over California Avenue, one stop south. Caltrain runs three patterns on weekdays:

• Express trains call at 11 stations between San Francisco and San Jose Diridon. Palo Alto is one of them, along with Redwood City and Mountain View.
• Limited trains add five more stops, including Menlo Park, California Avenue and San Antonio.
• Local trains stop at every station on the line.

On Saturdays and Sundays every train is a local, so all of them stop here. The weekday timetable repeats at the same minutes each hour, which makes it easy to remember your usual train once you have looked it up. We do not print departure times because they change with each timetable revision. Use the official Caltrain schedules or the live departure board on the station page. Check the last train of the night before an evening in San Francisco, since the final departures come earlier than many visitors expect.

Palo Alto is in Zone 3. A trip to Menlo Park, California Avenue or Mountain View crosses one zone, Redwood City is two and San Francisco is three. In October 2026 Caltrain listed those adult fares at $4.00, $6.25 and $8.50, with increases set for January 1, 2027.

The Palo Alto Transit Center

The bus plaza on the west side of the tracks is the Palo Alto Transit Center. It is the busiest bus hub in the city and the reason the station works so well without a car. Buses use a loop road called University Circle, with numbered bays along the curb. Caltrain lists these connections:

The Marguerite is Stanford's free shuttle and anyone may ride it without an ID. Line P goes straight up Palm Drive to the Oval in front of the Main Quad. Lines X and Y loop around campus in opposite directions. The main lines run Monday to Friday only and skip university holidays. Our Marguerite shuttle guide explains each line and which bay it uses. For the county buses, see our page on VTA buses and shuttles.

The city's on-demand Palo Alto Link shuttle used to pick up here. It ended on October 30, 2026, so plan on buses, the Marguerite, a bike or a rideshare instead.

Car parking

Caltrain lists 389 spaces in the Palo Alto lots. A permit is required around the clock, every day of the week. You have two ways to pay, per Caltrain's parking page:

1. Ticket machine. Note your stall number, choose Daily Parking on a station ticket machine, enter the stall and pay by cash or card. The station has six machines.
2. ParkMobile. Enter zone 99614 and your stall number in the app. You need an account with an email address, a payment card and your license plate.

A daily permit cost $5.50 in October 2026 and lasts 24 hours from purchase. Multi-day parking is not allowed. Monthly permits cost $82.50 and are only sold to riders who hold a Caltrain monthly pass or a GoPass. The fee is waived for cars showing a California disabled person plate or placard.

The lots fill early on weekdays and on Stanford event days. If they are full, the city's downtown garages are a short walk east. Rules and permit prices for those are in our guide to parking in Palo Alto.

Bike parking and getting here by bike

Palo Alto has the biggest bike parking setup of the city's stations. Caltrain lists 178 bike racks plus on-demand BikeLink eLockers, which you rent by the hour through the BikeLink app. Caltrain's own lockers charged 5 cents an hour, or 2 cents an hour on nights and weekends, in October 2026. First-time users get 100 free hours. Caltrain's bike parking page also lists Palo Alto among its secure bike parking stations, but the station page itself shows only racks and eLockers, so confirm before you count on a staffed room.

Racks near the platform fill on weekdays. A city survey of downtown bike parking in December 2023 found the heaviest use around the station and along University Avenue, with riders locking bikes to poles and trees when racks ran out. Use a U-lock and lock the frame. Do not lock to railings, which Caltrain asks riders to keep clear.

Two quiet routes lead here. The Homer Tunnel, a few blocks south of the station, carries people on foot and on bikes under the tracks between downtown and the El Camino Real side. From the east, Bryant Street, the city's original bike boulevard, crosses downtown a few blocks away. Our page on Palo Alto's bike boulevards covers the network.

Accessibility

Caltrain lists Palo Alto as a wheelchair accessible station. Every electric train can be boarded by ramp or by a conductor-operated lift. Wait at the blue boarding assistance area at the north end of the platform and the conductor will ask your destination before helping you on. Caltrain does not list an elevator here. The platforms are reached at ground level from the transit center side and the University Avenue side.

The smart restroom in Caltrain's pilot program is ADA accessible. The station parking fee is waived for cars with a disabled placard. All Marguerite buses are wheelchair accessible and carry bike racks. For paratransit and discount fares, read our guide to accessible travel in Palo Alto.

What is within walking distance

The station sits between two very different places. East of the tracks is downtown Palo Alto. West of the tracks is Stanford land: the shopping center, the medical center and then the campus itself. These are all reasonable walks:

Downtown is covered in our downtown and University Avenue guide. The redwood that gave the city its name stands by the tracks at the north end of town; read about El Palo Alto. The playing fields beside the station are part of El Camino Park. For campus, start with our page on the Main Quad.

Several hotels are within a few minutes of the platform, both downtown and along El Camino Real. If you want to skip the car entirely, compare hotels near Palo Alto station and pick one you can reach on foot.

Frequently asked questions