Valley Link Proposal - San Joaquin Feasibility Study

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... ink--57940

The Tri-Valley – San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority’s board last week released a feasibility study for Valley Link, a proposed commuter-rail service that would connect the San Joaquin Valley communities in California with Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) and Altamont Corridor Express’ (ACE) systems.

The report includes alignment options; an overview of stations and facilities; system integration options with BART and ACE; proposed vehicle technology; projected capital and operating costs; a funding and financing plan; and a recommendation for project management and delivery.

In the first phase of construction, the line would be connected to the existing BART Dublin/Pleasanton Station and ACE North Lathrop Station in Manteca. The service would run through the cities of Livermore and Tracy.
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Previous thread on a possible BART extension to Livermore: BART to Livermore - Controversy - RAILROAD.NET

Livermore Extension | bart.gov uses the past tense: "The BART to Livermore Extension project was a proposal to extend the BART rail line by 5.5 miles along I-580 from the existing Dublin/Pleasanton Station to a new station in the vicinity of the Isabel Avenue interchange."

acetobart.org now redirects to valleylinkrail.com - HOME | Valley Link Rail
Its proposed stations:

• Dublin/Pleasanton BART station
• Isabel Ave. - West Livermore
• Southfront Rd. - East Livermore
• Mountain House - West Tracy
• Downtown Tracy
• River Islands - South Lathrop
• Downtown Lathrop ACE station

The Initial Operating Segment will go out to either East Livermore or West Tracy.

Governor Signs Valley Link Legislation

On Wednesday, September 22, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 548 into law. SB548 designates the Tri-Valley – San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority (Authority) as a Rail Transit District, exempting the Authority from various provisions related to regulation by counties and cities regarding building, zoning, and related matters. The legislation also clarifies that the Authority can operate Valley Link – the passenger rail service it is planning, developing and delivering. Finally, the legislation establishes that the Valley Link project may be planned to connect with the ACE rail system at its most optimal location. SB 548 was unanimously approved by both the Senate and Assembly before moving to the Governor for consideration.

They are currently talking about using hydrogen-fueled vehicles, an indication that the line will not be electrified.

Not sure what is the best place for this:
Parking garage near Dublin BART still not built three years after ‘groundbreaking’
This one is to be located just north of the existing one on the Dublin side at the East Dublin-Pleasanton BART station. There is a cleared lot there, but no construction.

Valley Link Rail Project Recognized as Region Priority for Federal Funding​
"The initial operating segment (IOS) between the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station and the Mountain House station, including the Isabel and South Front Road stations in Livermore, is targeted for construction in 2025."

So they are going out to West Tracy. This will contain the most challenging part: construction in the median of I-580 between D/P and East Livermore. The rest of it will be easier, since it will use existing tracks and ROW's.

I will say this feels like a very strange project.

Rather than connecting BART with ACE and potentially adding a few infill stations with timed shuttle service, they are going to build another line that for the most part duplicates ACE? It's not like that line is bursting at the seams with ridership — it doesn't even run on weekends.

And hydrogen? Really?

ACE is frequency-limited because it shares tracks with freight, and it is only really useful for getting to Silicon Valley - especially without the Dumbarton Bridge, there's no real way for it to serve SF and Oakland. For all the flaws in the Valley Link plan, it links with BART for direct service to SF and Oakland, and provides a dedicated passenger ROW over the Altamont.

To find out what they are thinking about, I checked on ENVIRONMENTAL / CEQA | Valley Link Rail and EIR | Valley Link Rail - the Draft EIR document goes into the most detail, with the Final EIR document being mostly corrections to it.

For Dublin/Pleasanton, the VLR station will be right next to the BART station, to the north in the median of I-580. That will require moving the northern lanes northward a few lanes at the station and at the VLR and BART tailtracks. The station will be double-tracked with an island platform, meaning that to go between there and BART, one must go downstairs then upstairs.

I find it rather surprising, since it's not like the BART - eBART transfer: the eBART line starting where the BART line ends, at a transfer station a little beyond the outermost full station (Pittsburg / Bay Point).

The line will be single-tracked along most of its length, with double tracks at stations and some additional spots. At Greenville Rd., it will depart from I-580 on an elevated trackway and then go into the ex-SP right of way over Altamont Pass. UP and ACE use the ex-WP right of way.

The station locations:

• East Dublin/Pleasanton BART station
• West Livermore: Isabel Ave.
• East Livermore:
  • Southfront Rd.: between 1st St. and Vasco Rd. -- preferred option
  • Greenville Rd.: where it meets I-580 and Altamont Pass Rd. -- alternate: shared with ACE
• West Tracy: Mountain House: W Via Nicolo Rd. or Hansen Rd.
• Tracy: N Central Ave. btwn 4th St. & 6th St.
• River Islands: W Stewart Rd.
• North Lathrop: W Lathrop Rd.

The line goes D/P - Livermore - Tracy - Lathrop but not all the way into Stockton, at least in this stage of planning.

The EGE wrote: ↑Sat Apr 02, 2022 11:04 pm ACE is frequency-limited because it shares tracks with freight, and it is only really useful for getting to Silicon Valley - especially without the Dumbarton Bridge, there's no real way for it to serve SF and Oakland. For all the flaws in the Valley Link plan, it links with BART for direct service to SF and Oakland, and provides a dedicated passenger ROW over the Altamont.

Valley Link Rail will use the ex-SP right-of-way across Altamont Pass, while UP and ACE use the ex-WP line. In Tracy and Lathrop, the VLR line will parallel the UP/ACE line, judging from the DEIR document's diagrams.

If it uses SP tracks what happens to the rail museum?

Niles Canyon Railway is on the west part of the ex-SP ROW between Fremont and Pleasanton. Valley Link is proposed to use the east part of the ex-SP ROW from Livermore eastwards.

The EGE wrote: ↑Sat Apr 02, 2022 11:04 pm ACE is frequency-limited because it shares tracks with freight, and it is only really useful for getting to Silicon Valley - especially without the Dumbarton Bridge, there's no real way for it to serve SF and Oakland. For all the flaws in the Valley Link plan, it links with BART for direct service to SF and Oakland, and provides a dedicated passenger ROW over the Altamont.

My point is that they should connect ACE with BART and call it a day, perhaps add some passing sidings to the existing line. That would be much cheaper and quicker to do than this and would not require purchasing new, completely unproven equipment using a technology that's been "just around the corner" for over 3 decades.

(and mind you, they should connect ACE to BART in at least two locations — Dublin/Livermore and Fremont. Absolutely nuts that the tracks pass over each other in the latter location yet there's no pedestrian transfer achievable.)

The Tracy Line - Abandoned Rails -- the ex-SP line between Fremont and Tracy

lensovet wrote: ↑Sat Apr 02, 2022 10:11 pm And hydrogen? Really?

I agree that that's weird. There's no mention of participating in some program to demonstrate hydrogen-powered rail vehicles.

The DEIR mentions these options:

• Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU)
• Hybrid Battery Multiple Unit (HBMU)
• Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU)
• Diesel Locomotive Haul (DLH)

Some of the project diagrams show rail vehicles that get electricity from overhead cables, presumably to show where the cables would be relative to the station structures. No mention of hydrogen, however. That substance does get some brief mentions in the FEIR, however.

If hydrogen is used, it would likely be stored in compressed form, because hydrogen is difficult to liquefy and to store in liquid form. Hydrogen would likely be used in fuel cells, an alternative to internal-combustion engines that makes electricity. So hydrogen propulsion would likely have the sort of weight problem that diesel engines have.

I think that the rolling stock would most likely be DMU's. They don't need overhead cables, and they will have their own right-of-way. Diesel engines are the most mature technology for them. A hybrid drive is like a hybrid drive for a car: a diesel engine combined with batteries for accelerating. A battery-electric drive is like what an electric car has.

As to alternatives to petroleum-derived diesel fuel, I'm thinking of starting another thread on them. In summary, biodiesel exists but biofuels in general take a lot of energy to produce, and it's doubtful that one gets a net gain of energy. Hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis of water, though that isn't quite competitive with natural-gas reforming. It is also very difficult to store, because It has a super low boiling point. But hydrogen can be used as a feedstock for a variety of synthetic fuels (synfuels), like ammonia, methanol, and hydrocarbons. Here also, not quite competitive with fossil-fuel versions.

lensovet wrote: ↑Sun Apr 03, 2022 1:52 pm (and mind you, they should connect ACE to BART in at least two locations — Dublin/Livermore and Fremont. Absolutely nuts that the tracks pass over each other in the latter location yet there's no pedestrian transfer achievable.)

Let's look at each location.

Fremont? The UP/ACE tracks are nearly a mile from the Fremont BART station, and the Fremont/Centerville ACE station about 1.7 miles away. I don't expect BART to move its Fremont station to the UP/ACE tracks.

Dublin/Pleasanton/Livermore? The Pleasanton ACE station is 3 miles from the D/P BART station, and the Livermore ACE station is a little over over a mile from I-580 and 2 miles from Isabel Ave. and I-580. The UP/ACE tracks cross I-580 at Livermore's northeast end.

I looked on Google Maps to see what would be necessary for I-580. Its median slims down to a road divider halfway between Hacienda Dr. and Tassajara Rd. and continues in that form all the way to NE Livermore.

Seems like it may be better to extend BART to Isabel Ave., then do the Valley Rail line from there.

lpetrich wrote: ↑Sun Apr 03, 2022 5:31 pm Fremont? The UP/ACE tracks are nearly a mile from the Fremont BART station, and the Fremont/Centerville ACE station about 1.7 miles away. I don't expect BART to move its Fremont station to the UP/ACE tracks.

I wouldn't either, there's no room to have a parking lot or anything like that there due to existing development. My suggestion was to build a transfer-only station, the way Secaucus was initially or the way the EWR station is today. Have BART trains only make stops at it when there's a corresponding train on the ACE track. Given the frequency of service on ACE today, it would have minimal impact on BART schedules but would make ACE as a service a hell of a lot more useful. Today its only transfer point to anything else in the region (that's not just another rail line stopping at the same stations) is San Jose Diridon.

Dublin/Pleasanton/Livermore? The Pleasanton ACE station is 3 miles from the D/P BART station, and the Livermore ACE station is a little over over a mile from I-580 and 2 miles from Isabel Ave. and I-580. The UP/ACE tracks cross I-580 at Livermore's northeast end.

Right, so extend BART on elevated tracks from its current terminus to Isabel Ave, then go south on Isabel Ave until you reach the ACE tracks. 7 miles total plus one new station, would be a hell of a lot cheaper than this proposal and could actually be done in less than 20 years.