Pre-History

Everyone knows there's a gap in the Bay Area's rail system. Sure, a few trains run daily between the East Bay and San Jose, with a few less traveling between the Central Valley, Livermore/Pleasanton area and San Jose. But there is a need for more service.

In the late 1990's, leaders in the Silicon Valley secured funding for a commute rail link between Union City and San Jose. Equipment was ordered, but then the plan died. Why? They had their eye suddenly on a bigger prize-BART. Instead of staring up a rail link, they turned their attention to planning for a BART line south from Fremont.

It has been long said in "unofficial" circles that the BART plan was unaffordable. It was also questioned if the BART line was going to be built in the right place. All of these questions and their answers will be explained in later posts. But as time has shown, the BART plan now seems to be unrealistic.

So what's the answer? This blog hopes to answer that and explain the benefits to a point that will build support to move away from the existing gridlock.

Let's Build This

What's the best option to close the gap in regional transit between Fremont and San Jose? This blog will explore an alternative to the BART-San Jose project. Take a look at the initial proposal at:

http://www.bayrailalliance.org/caltrain_metro_east

and here:

http://arch21.org/BARegRail.dir/BayRailDetailMaps.dir/mapindex.html

(scroll down to the Fremont-San Jose maps)