Next phase starts for Dumbarton rail service Next phase starts for Dumbarton rail service (April 20, 2005)

** Commuter trains could run across the old Dumbarton Bridge by 2010.

By Marion Softky

Almanac Staff Writer

The promise of commuter trains carrying passengers between the east and west Bay communities across the Dumbarton railroad bridge just got closer.

The board of the San Mateo County Transit Authority voted to authorize $963,000 in funding for the preliminary environmental and engineering studies to reconstruct the bridge and approaches, and to reactivate service in the Dumbarton Rail Corridor.

When service starts, possibly in 2010, a modern railroad will link Caltrain on the Peninsula with the Altamont Commuter Express, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor, and BART, as well as East Bay bus systems and a multimodal transit center in Union City.

"We're moving from talk to reality," said Supervisor Rich Gordon, who sits on the board of the Transportation Authority, the agency that doles out money from the county's Measure A half-cent transportation sales tax.

The $5.7 million environmental and engineering studies will be funded by equal contributions from the transportation authorities in San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara counties, plus $2.7 million from Regional Measure 2, the measure passed by Bay Area voters in 2004 to raise tolls on Bay Area bridges. Funding has also been lined up from the same sources for construction of the $300 million project.

Although parts of the 20.5-mile rail corridor have been in service since the turn of the last century, the swing bridge in the middle of the Bay has been out of use for more than 20 years.

Funding to rebuild the rail line and restore service have been included in both the 1988 Measure A, and the renewed Measure A passed by county voters last November. Measure A funds were used in 1994 to purchase the corridor from the Southern Pacific Railroad.

A series of studies and public hearings led to a project study report published in May 2004.

On the west side of the Bay, the rail line uses the existing tracks that run from Redwood City, through residential areas of unincorporated North Fair Oaks. South of Marsh Road, it serves Bohannon Industrial Park in Menlo Park on one side, and runs past residential areas around Suburban Park in Menlo Park on the other. The rail line then crosses Bayshore Freeway and runs through Belle Haven and East Palo Alto to the Bay.

A new station is planned where the railroad crosses Willow Road in Menlo Park.

Past hearings provoked strong opposition from residents of North Fair Oaks and the Suburban Park areas, who now experience only a couple of slow trains a week behind their homes.

Plans call for six round trips per day to leave Union City in peak morning hours. At Redwood City, three would carry commuters north to San Francisco on the Caltrain line, and three would turn south to San Jose. All six trains would return in the evening.

Ridership projection show that approximately 4,800 passengers would ride the trains in 2010, rising to 6,900 in 2025.

It will still take several years to complete the environmental and design studies authorized last week. "This is the very initial step," said Supervisor Gordon.
INFORMATION

More information on the Dumbarton Rail project is available on the Transportation Authority's Web site at smcta.com.

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