The Bus to Fremont-Centerville to start ACE

Introduction to my time in the Bay Area: 

My two main goals for this stay in the Bay Area are the two Regional Rail Systems (plus the Amtrak Capital Corridor) that I haven’t spent any time focusing on. The reason, mainly daylight timing. My last visit here was in winter The rail systems are Caltrain that runs all day hourly or better service between San Francisco and San Jose but has a three train peak direction weekdays extended down to Gilroy (with an easy VTA Bus connection back to San Jose). The other system is the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE Rail) that runs from Stockton to San Jose with four trips in each direction through Niles Canyon and Over the Altamont Pass. I figured out I could get a station-to-station done on ACE but it would require two rush hours if I wanted (yes please) to ride the entire line. One rush hour to go from Fremont (shared with the Capital Corridor) to Vasco Road and getting Livermore on the way back by Wheels Bus to BART at Dublin/Pleasanton. A second final rush hour to finish the route (with stopovers at the final two stops Tracy and Lathrop/Manteca) by accessing the train at Pleasanton via a Shuttle Bus from West Dublin/Pleasanton BART. BART to SFO is nearly as expensive as AirTrain JFK and I found a bus option from SFO to the Centerville Rail Station that would cost just $6.20 via Palo Alto in Stamford instead of BART for $10.70 plus a long walk. I also want to ride over the Dumbarton Bridge and see the remains of the rail bridge on Caltrain’s wish list.

This Afternoon:

I leave the United Club and head out to AirTrain SFO and spend an hour doing a station to station for my Airport People Mover section (DFW’s is the only system I’ve finished so far). I immediately know I’m in more mild  San Francisco since the stations are all in the open air, not climate controlled like our AirTrain JFK. A few stops even have decent railings to get photos from. Trains come extremely frequently (much better than AirTrain JFK that seems to be running quite slow headways), The lines are even colored, Blue goes to and from the Rental Car Center and makes an outer loop. Red does the inner loop between the terminals. Some stops impress me a lot. Particularly the rental car center. It has two tracks, an island platform and more boarding doors built directly into the third story of the unified garage car rentals leave from letting you go from train to rental car counter in a matter of minutes. The BART station is extremely simple to. AirTrain stops directly above the BART platforms, the BART faregates are directly beyond the AirTrain platform. I do think that BART made a big mistake by building the SFO Airport station on its own short branch that is hard to serve operationally (especially with the lack of direct service from Millbrae) and the AirTrain should have been extended to Millbrae or another intermodal station served by both Caltrain and BART. This would have given Caltrain transferring passengers a two seat ride, not a four seat ride they have today. Unless your leaving from the close International Terminal BART riders transfer to the AirTrain anyway so no harm would be done to ridership.

I find Courtyard A barely (the signage is quite confusing on how to get downstairs to the lower level of International Terminal A) at 12:57 and the stop for bus route KX. It arrives with an articulated at 1:02 I pay my $2 fare and the next thing I know we’re circling all the terminals. SFO is nice and compact so it only takes 10 minutes. We leave the airport at 1:12. Had I known I would have gone to the furthest stop. Soon were on US-101.

• 1:18 – First stop in San Mateo on a ramp. The driver gets out and he’s fixing paving stones. We get back on the 101.
• 1:23 – Get off US-101
• 1:28 – Get on El Camino Royal and become basically a local bus. At least were following CalTrain. If I wasn’t so desperate to get the three ACE stations I need and had more time for stopovers I would have bought a day pass and made stops.

I zone out as we follow Caltrain running right on time as I assume from riding bus routes in suburban California. The bus ride on Camino Real gets old at over an hour but I’ve had much worse mainly on Nice Bus. The old school blue leather seats are fine and comfortable.
We arrive at the Palo Alto Caltrain station at 2:15. I do a bit of a photo essay of the station, but don’t end up on the San Francisco-bound platform before walking down the bike path to get the special Stadium station (only only during Stamford Football Games).

Next is walking to AC transit Line U to Fremont. It does a bit of a loop through Palo Alto but it’s last stop is at the Stamford Oval. I get turned around and have to walk/jog to the Oval, arriving just as a coach bus with nice high back seats arrives at 2:59. I pay an extra nickel since I only have a quarter and not two dimes for the $4.20 fare. I manage to get the last set of two seats. To add insult to me it leaves Stamford the same way I got to the oval down Embarcadero but doesn’t make another stop. We get on the 101 north to head up to the Dumbarton Rail Bridge, with no further stops.
The ride across the Dumbarton Bridge is extremely scenic. I get some photos of the defunct rail bridge and see the San Francisco skyline off in the distance.

We make one stop at 3:22  at the Ardenwood Park & Ride, a lot of the bus gets off. We have to back up to get around a parked car in an ADA parking space. We get back on the freeway CA-84.

I get to the Fremont/Centerville Amtrak/ACE station at 3:30 with plenty of time. There is a nice old station building. ACE doesn’t have ticket machines just ticket validator stamps. To buy ACE tickets at most stations they have sellers in booths only during the morning rush hour. Here though ACE tickets are sold in a diner at the station. I walk in and buy my $5 ticket to Vasco Road. I then put it in a validator to validate it. A southbound Capital Corridor Train passes through the station. Amtrak uses what I presume is the old freight house for a small unstaffed waiting area that has a QuikTrak machine inside. I enter and find a bit of confusion there is a woman suitcase in tow confused if she is waiting for a train or a bus to Stockton. She says the reservation agent was convinced it was a bus. Amtrak code shares with ACE to get connecting San Joaquin Passengers to Stockton. I grab a timetable and verify that the train number on her ticket is the same as the ACE train, it is! She thanks me a lot. I go back outside.

At 4:06 ACE Arrives. I board the last car with mostly forward/backward seating and we leave. We slowly go over roads and through subdivisions.

• 4:10 – Leave the Capital Corridor I presume and start heading up niles canyon passing modular homes, new trackage!
  
• 4:12 – Another railroad bridge. Very close to trees.
  
• 4:13 – Slowly enter a tunnel as the train rocks
• 4:15 – Emerge and go up the Nile River Canyon.
  
• 4:16 – Under a road and a shorter tunnel. The trees close to the train make pictures hard
  

  

• 4:18 – over a stream and keep following a road
• 4:20 – Sun is off in the distance with a nice, old depot. Then a bunch of abandoned train cars.
  

  

• 4:22 – two roads join us for Hearst and we pass a UP freight train on the siding
  
• 4:24 – the Valley become wider and we cross under the other track. Then we pass a golf course
  
• 4:25 – Announcement for Pleasanton and that the front coach won’t open, here at Livermore or Vasco Road. We’re on flat land again.
• 4:27 – We arrive in Pleasanton some get off but it seems like many more get on. We leave and pass the entrance to the fairgrounds. Then houses. We cross over roads, by single family homes.
• 4:31 – Pass a large self-storage area
• 4:32 – run between a cement plant and a road
  

  

• 4:34 – Livermore arriving announcement, only the rear 5 cars as we pass houses
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• 4:35 – We stop at Livermore station along a parking garage. One person gets on. I hear bridge plate movement. We leave at 4:37.

We slowly go through Livermore passing houses and some industry. I see wind turbines off in the distance. Then some modern office parks and its a relatively uneventful ride to Vasco.
I step off at Vasco at 4:42, the station has the overpass going over the southern end of the platform and amazingly two entrances. One is a road entrance that goes around the large parking lot, the other has a few more parking spaces and goes straight back towards Vasco Road itself. I get my photo essay of the simple station with only glorified bus shelters for waiting passengers. I’m quite grateful for the direct access road back towards Vasco Road because from Google Maps I thought that I would have to walk the long way around the parking lot.

I walk up Vasco Road, over some other railroad tracks and Las Positas Road and get to the stop for Wheels Bus Route 11 at 5:04, 15 minutes early

• 5:07 – the bus I’m taking passes the other way to go around it’s civic center loop
• 5:18 – see the bus turning off in the distance. It’s making another loop.
• 5:22 – the bus arrives with one other passenger, a short 30 footer with only longitudinal seats. I request my transfer, an old fashioned paper one. I don’t try and get the two buses for free on my ACE ticket although I know its valid for a transfer. We don’t pick up any more passengers
• 5:28 – cross a railroad. I think ACE.

5:29 arrive at Pleasanton Station, the LVTA Transit Center. I get ACE 4 leaving the station which an idiot kid tries to run after and follow. I also get a nearly full photo essay of the ACE station.

At 5:54 on the Rapid. It’s a 45 foot bus and also empty with just a few other people. They have bus tracking at the Rapid Stops! The bus follows ACE a bit out of town and even passes between an airport and wheat fields. This area has tons of suburban sprawl.
At 6:13 we pass the Livermore Premium Outlets. Two girls get on with shopping bags. Asking “How Much is the Ticket” I guess if your used to tickets like on BART you think that way. We go over I-580, the road over Altamont Pass. There is no traffic Oakland-bound but a huge jam of traffic leaving, no wonder ACE is successful.
At 6:21 I arrive at the BART station and take tons of photos including riding up one of the station’s four elevators to the top of the 7 story parking garage for some photos.

At 6:55 finally get on BART after getting a large photo essay of this station with tons of huge parking lots.
6:59 off to go downtown.& forgot just how rural the pass Bart uses in the median of I-280 is with the RV camp and just hills and trees. Soon were passing trucks.
7:11 – finally get to Castro Valley.
7:39 at West Oakland enter the tunnel under the bay. My ears pop and seem to feel worse than on my flight.
At 7:47 I get off at Montgomery and its a good ten degrees color along the bay. I walk over to my hostel, the Pacific Tradewinds and check-in for the night, totally beat from my super early wake up, still on New York Time.