^ I regret not taking Caltrain at least up to SoMa and back to try it out. Remind me of the trains in Europe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama
I would think a Dumbarton rail crossing would have value as regional rail.
Altamont Commuter Express From Stockton and Tracy to Redwood City and Palo Alto. It wouldn't go all the way to SF since Stockton has a more direct route for Amtrak to Oakland and Pleasanton has the BART blue line through the transbay tunnel. But there is no direct transit route from the more affordable inland fringe suburbs (Tracy) to the most absurdly expensive and NIMBY penninsula areas like Palo Alto.
The downside is that a lot of effort would be required to increase speeds on the inland Altamont Pass sections to make it more useful for longer trips. Obviously a completely straight bridge could have trains going 79 mph no sweat and the trains can also go fast once they get over the hills and are in the Tracy area.
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Even if there was an ACE spur somewhere in Newark that connected across the Dumbarton rail bridge to East Palo Alto or even Menlo Park, that would be a game changer. Fortunately for now, at least in tech, there are shuttles that take people across the bridges; I would take ours from FRE to MPK pretty regularly to avoid the tolls.