Guest opinion: How did we miss this? A cross-bay link via the old Dumbarton Rail

Editor,

The Peninsula is the only major work center I’ve known that doesn’t have a real transit system. There’s one train line, and if you don’t live and/or work next to Caltrain, it’s not how you get around.

The result of living in a transit-starved environment can be twisted. Most of us depend on cars for everything, leading to some fanciful dreams of alternatives — like bicycle commuting. After extensive regional bike lane improvements, Meta was hoping to see 5% of its employees arrive on a self-powered bike. That’s nice, but not a relevant solution.

How is it that this planet-sensitive region has no transit route to the coast or from the Peninsula to the East Bay? The latter has both existing housing and buildable housing sites, but the drive over the Dumbarton is a bad trade of wasted time. And anyway the 101 and 880 can’t handle more bridge traffic.

Since 1999, there have been several attempts to build a cross-bay link via the old Dumbarton Rail right of way — the abandoned rail right of way from Redwood City through Menlo Park to Union City.  Imagine — it would  connect Caltrain with BART, even Amtrak. Voters authorized at least two huge bonds in that period for the local share of project cost. What happened to that effort — and what happened to the money?

The answer is largely that our city, county and state legislators have other things they’d rather fight for. Like extensive hearings on housing, greenhouse gas emissions and equity issues — ironic, because available transit would meaningfully and profoundly address all of those. Well, the money got siphoned off by East Bay BART advocates.  Meanwhile, if you haven’t followed, at least seven huge new office parks are due to open on the Peninsula in the next four years, and both our housing demand and transportation demand will boom. Again.

Last fall, I contacted mayors, supervisors, state, and federal representatives for the south peninsula, and several major land/business owners as well.  All knew about the coming surge of office space — and all were enthusiastic about the Dumbarton Rail project. Indeed, over the last five years, Facebook invested millions of dollars with SamTrans to study and outline a rail project, even forming a private construction consortium to to hasten the project. It seemed like a team that couldn’t be denied. But there was not enough political will to get the agency ducks in a row. Jackie Speier and many local leaders pressed hard behind the scenes, but the MTC — the local agency that controls Bay Area transportation spending — just couldn’t make the California side of the commitment, preferring to divert state funds again to BART. When in 2021 and 2022 Washington, D.C. had billions offered up for local transportation, the Peninsula built toll lanes. 

So I challenge our state reps, our federal reps and above all the un-elected agencies that hold the purse strings for Bay Area transportation. We’ve had enough of hearing how BART is more important.  We’ve had enough of elite toll lanes. There are 4 million people in Silicon Valley that have been the economic engine of California, and pay more in taxes than any other region. It’s time we got the transportation infrastructure that nearly every other major work center in the world has built.    

To those who hold the purse strings: What does it take to get you on our team?

Henry Riggs is a Menlo Park resident, member of the city Planning Commission and local architect.