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Publication Date: Friday, December 20, 2002

New transit plan could link Pleasanton-San Joaquin Valley

A sweeping mass transit plan that could connect Pleasanton to the San Joaquin Valley and to cities along the I-680 corridor to Walnut Creek was unveiled this week to the Tri-Valley Transportation Committee.

The plan, described as "strictly conceptual," was presented by Val Joseph Menotti, BART's Alameda County planning manager, and Thomas G. Matoff, director of transportation planning for LTK Engineering Services, which developed the plan.

Building on a policy recommendation to eventually extend BART service to Greenville Road in the I-580 median, the two planners told the Vision 2010 transportation committee that a combination of light rail and alternative diesel-powered trains could offer interim mass transit options.

"BART to Greenville Road is generally thought of as a long-range development," Matoff said. "We're looking at other kinds of opportunities to design a rail service in the short range that would support this long range goal."

Matoff said studies indicate there could be 255,800 weekday commuter trips from Livermore by 2020, with "a significant number actually heading for Tri-Valley destinations."

"Sometimes transit planners think that the main needs are to take people to downtown San Francisco," he explained. "But this is not like Chicago where commuters head to a central city. In fact, those heading to San Francisco represent a relatively small market when you look at the total volume of trips being generated in this area. What this means is that we need more than a single transit system; we need a network that can take us to many places."

The BART-LTK study was spurred by Scott Haggerty, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, after he saw different rail concepts and transportation technologies at a Los Angeles meeting.

"So we were asked to explore something that could be put in place among these emerging technologies that might connect the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station to Livermore and on into the Central Valley," Matoff said. "Although we have yet to look at Walnut Creek as a destination along I-680 north, we are aware that this is an important consideration and needs to be studied."

In his report, Matoff said combined trips into the Tri-Valley from both local and trans-Altamont origins will total about 159,000 a day in 2020, about half the total commuter trips projected into the Tri-Valley. That year, his study estimates that 95,200 commuters will cross the Altamont Pass each weekday.

Since it could be 10-20 years or more before BART extends its rail line to Greenville Road, Matoff suggested using a combination of light rail, express buses and multiple diesel units to extend mass transit service to Tracy and Stanislaus County destinations. The proposed service could also tie into similar mass transit service now being considered in Contra Costa County and along the capital corridor to Sacramento.

Among these is the Colorado Railcar, which he recently saw tested at a Las Vegas transportation show. The first new rail car built in the U.S. in the last 50 years, this self-propelled diesel vehicle is designed for use on regular railroad tracks, with one engineer but with each car self-propelled. Another new self-propelled diesel car is the Bombardier Talent, now in use in Ottawa on an eight-mile commuter line. Unlike the Colorado railcar, the Bombardier does not meet Federal Railroad Administration standards for use on active rail lines.

Matoff suggested alignment options for taking one of the rapid transit systems from the Pleasanton BART station into Hacienda business park, along Owens Drive and across the Santa Rita-West Las Positas intersection to Stanley Boulevard, where it would head east to Livermore. The suggested route would involve using a portion of the Iron Horse Trail and other transportation corridors that Alameda County has acquired from the old Southern Pacific Railroad.

His plan calls for operating a transit service on 24 miles of the abandoned SP line from Livermore to Tracy, with connections at Greenville Road at a time when BART service is extended there. The transit service could also negotiate with Union Pacific to use some of its tracks that are no longer active, although adding commuter trains to active UP tracks could pose problems. He said UP operations are controlled out of Omaha and that public transit on a corporate-owned rail line like UP's has been discouraged by both the public and business sectors.

James Paxson, general manager of the Hacienda Owners Association and a member of the Tri-Valley Transportation Committee, said the new study represents an "exciting opportunity to look at regional transportation concepts."

"This is a fairly new plan that would develop a transportation system that could reach over into the Central Valley, serve Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin, and provide good connector systems for everyone," he said. "It also offers a chance to provide mass transit up to Walnut Creek, which would be a very valuable connection for Hacienda. Right now, we don't have any good transportation system between the two areas."

Matoff said the next step will be to identify county-owned and controlled transportation corridors that might be available and also to include San Ramon and Bishop Ranch in conceptual engineering studies on establishing interim and alternative mass transit systems in the area.