Plan could dramatically alter rail service
As ideas progress, some worry about closed stations, harm to environment
OAKLANc >> An ambitious plan to change rail service between Oakland and the South Bay is chugging along, despite local officials criticizing the proposal because it would mean the loss of a train station and reduced service at another.
Called South Bay Connect, the new service would shift Capitol Corridor passenger trains from running on a section of their current Union Pacific line, which cuts through Fremont, Union City and Hayward, to another Union Pacific track farther west and close to San Francisco Bay.
The proposed line would intersect with an east-west line in Newark.
The idea is to ease congestion on what’s known as the Niles Subdivision route, which now carries passenger trains and also serves as a main Union Pacific line for freight cars heading south from the Port of Oakland toward San Jose and beyond, according to agencies under the authority. It also would mean a faster ride between Oakland and San Jose.
But that plan also means Hayward and Fremont will no longer be places where people can climb aboard a Capitol Corridor car.
“This is far from a done deal,” Hayward Mayor Barbara Halliday said in an interview. “Aside from the fact that Hayward will be losing its station — located within walking distance of BART — the new route will pass through wetlands, which is an environmental concern.”
Shirley Qian, a senior planner with the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority and manager of the transportation project, said in an email that the Hayward and Fremont stations do not have ridership numbers that justify using them for the Capitol service.
The places “are among the lowest-use stations on the Capitol Corridor route; in fact, the combined preCOVID ridership at the two stations account for only about three percent of the entire Capitol Corridor systemwide ridership,” Qian said.
Q ian added that the change will shorten the trip between Oakland and San Jose by up to 13 minutes.
Under the proposal by the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority, a new station would be built near Highway 84 in the Ardenwood neighborhood of west Fremont as part of the $264 million project.
At the Ardenwood station, riders could transfer to transbay transportation services, such as AC Transit, Stanford University shuttles and several employee shuttles.
No new Capitol Corridor stop is planned for Union City under the South Bay
Connect project, Qian said. Union City has long pushed for a spot that could connect passengers of Capitol Corridor and ACE trains with the city’s BART station as a transportation hub.
On Monday, Union City Mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci noted new homes are planned near the city’s BART station and the loss of Capitol Corridor service would be a blow for future residents.
“If someone is looking to locate to that area, it means one less attraction for them,” Dutra-Vernaci said.
In fiscal year 2019, the
corridor’s annual ridership was 1.7 million. If the route change happens, Capitol Corridor expects ridership will jump 288,000 in the first year alone as a result of the speedier service being more attractive to passengers.
The corridor stretches about 168 miles and carries passengers between San Jose and Auburn in the Sierra Nevada foothills, stopping at places such as Emeryville, Davis and Sacramento along the way.
The average daily ridership in the Capitol Corridor in fiscal year 2019 through Hayward was 171 passengers and in Fremont was 125.
In Berkeley, it was 470, but in Emeryville the daily ridership averaged 1,064 during the period.
In an Aug. 10 letter to the authority, Halliday said she opposed the loss of the Hayward station and noted that the proposed rail change will pass through East Bay areas susceptible to sea-level rise.
“People can walk to that station now,” the mayor said, saying that she personally has used the service. “It gets people out of their cars if they need to travel, including up to Sacramento by train.”
Another letter to the authority from Halliday, San Leandro Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter and Dutra-Vernaci three days after Halliday’s initial letter also cited environmental concerns about the route change.
The letter from the mayors asked for information about the impacts of changing the route, especially as a result of the anticipated increased freight travel on the current line as passenger trains are shifted toward the west.
The Fremont City Council voted unanimously Oct. 6 to send a letter to the authority outlining similar concerns.
“We really need to see whether the benefits are justified given the cost impacts to the community,” Councilwoman Teresa Keng said during the meeting.
The Altamont Corridor Express would continue to stop at the Fremont station under the proposed changes, Qian said Monday.
Within the area slated for the change are three rail lines that run north and south and two that run east and west, all owned by Union Pacific. They are used for freight and passenger travel of Capitol Corridor, the Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) and the Amtrak Coast Starlight.
The Capitol Corridor operates 14 trains daily on the route, Amtrak has two and the ACE has eight. The Union Pacific level of freight service varies.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were eight daily weekday ACE trains — westbound and eastbound, four trains in each direction — and two trains that traveled Saturdays through Niles Canyon into and out of Fremont, Qian said.
That same amount of service is expected to resume after the public health crisis eases, she said.
So far, $193,463,000 has been identified to pay for the project, according to a website the transportation agencies have put together. Among the funding sources are Caltrans, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Alameda County Transpor tation Commission.
Other funding to make up the shortfall might come from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the California Transportation Commission, according to the Capitol Corridor authority.
An environmental impact report is scheduled for fall 2022. Construction is expected to start in 2024 if the project wins approval and more funding.
The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Board, which includes representatives from BART, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and other agencies among the eight counties within the corridor, must approve the environmental report for the project to move forward.
While the route would shift between Oakland and Newark, it would remain the same south of Newark to San Jose and north of Oakland.