Dumbarton Update: Gaps in regional and state coordination

The big hole in the Bay Area’s regional transit planning was evident recently in news from the Dumbarton Corridor. At community meetings in East Palo Alto and in North Fair Oaks (an unincorporated community in San Mateo County near Redwood City), Facebook disclosed that they were considering light rail on surface streets as an option to connect the proposed Dumbarton Rail service to BART in Union City. The light rail option could help address right of way questions, since Facebook was having challenges negotiating with Union Pacific, the 150-year old freight giant which is well-known to be unsupportive of passenger rail access to their tracks and right of way. 

A street-running light rail option is understandable from the point of view of Crossbay Transit Partners, the public private partnership composed of Facebook and the Plenary Group, a private transportation development partner, who are looking to jumpstart a transit service on a timeline and budget that meets Plenary’s financial goals for development of a rail project using SamTrans-owned right of way.

However, from the viewpoint of the Bay Area, megaregion and state, planning for a short segment of slower light rail greatly reduces the value of a link that also serves as part of 40+ mile commutes from the TriValley, Contra Costa County and the Central Valley. 

Meanwhile, in a separate effort, the Bay Area region has commissioned a Southern Alameda County Integrated Rail study to assess opportunities for East Bay Rail Hub connections, in partnership between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Alameda County Transportation Commission,. But that Southern Alameda County study is on a 2-3 year time frame, and is expected to report its conclusions after Facebook’s timeline to complete their planning and environmental review.

We question why our region and state place the challenge of negotiating with Union Pacific onto a social media company and its for-profit partner. Currently, in south Santa Clara County, the State of California is negotiating with Union Pacific to craft a right of way agreement to enable electric Caltrain and High Speed Rail service sharing UP’s right of way from Tamien in San Jose to Gilroy.

From the perspective of wanting a high-performing, fast, well-connected, well-coordinated regional and state network, the Dumbarton Corridor planning seems like a case study in uncoordination.  Public Private Partnerships have the potential to be a useful component of creating an integrated transit system. But their role should be shaped by the region’s goals. The regional long-term outcomes shouldn’t be constrained by the short-term financial needs of a private partner in one segment of the regional network. 

The backwards planning underscores the urgent need for Transit Network Manager for the Bay Area that can do long term capital planning and provide a framework for private sector players to participate, leveraging their capital and expertise to advance regional goals.

For more details about the news from Facebook on the Dumbarton Corridor planning, see this blog post. 

And read this post for a proposal from the Seamless Bay Area on how to create a better regional planning process.