Parking permits required at Stanford's main campus and Stanford Redwood City

Commuters and residents are required to have a valid parking permit purchased through the online ordering system to avoid potential citations. Read our article to learn more.

For COVID-related transportation updates, please visit our Stanford Transportation COVID-19: Featured Topics page. If you are interested in learning more about your commute options as you return to campus, please refer to our Returning to Your Stanford commute page.

Caltrain operational and financial updates

Some Stanford commuters have expressed concern about whether or not Caltrain will continue to operate given the financial challenges caused by ridership decreases due to COVID-19. We have developed a Caltrain Updates: COVID-19 page to help provide context about Caltrain’s current situation and the proposed eighth-cent sales tax measure to provide the agency with a direct funding source.

If you choose to take public transit for your commute, please take a look at some tips that we’ve created to help protect yourself and others.

Caltrain Go Pass Eligibility

For graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and university and hospital employees residing off Stanford property and within typical commuting distances.

 

Find out if you are eligible by using our automated eligibility checker.

Eligible Not eligible
  • Off-campus graduate students (pilot program eligibility through March 31, 2021)
  • Postdoctoral scholars (pilot program eligibility through March 31, 2021)
  • University, SLAC, and hospital employees who meet all of the following conditions:
    • work 20 or more hours per week
    • receive regular Stanford University or Hospital/LPCH benefits
    • are at Stanford primarily for employment
    • residence address is not on Stanford property (outside of the 94304, 94305, and 94309 ZIP codes*) [Note: This ZIP code exclusion doesn’t apply to university employees whose primary worksite is Stanford Redwood City.]
    • residence address is within a typical commuting range of Stanford's main campus (i.e., Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, and Yolo counties)
    • are not in a classification listed under "Not eligible"
  • undergraduate students
  • temporary and casual employees, contractors, and visiting scholars
  • employees working less than 20 hours per week
  • employees on leave of absence
  • anyone whose residence address in the HR database has a 94304, 94305, 94309 ZIP code* [Note: This ZIP code exclusion doesn’t apply to university employees whose primary worksite is Stanford Redwood City.]
  • anyone whose residence address in the HR database has a blank ZIP code*
  • employees whose residence ZIP code and/or worksite is/are not within typical commuting range of Stanford's main campus (e.g., outside of California, Southern California, etc.)

* Proof of residence off Stanford property will not be accepted for ineligible (94304, 94305, 94309) or blank ZIP codes in the Stanford Transportation database, and no exceptions can be made.