San Mateo County Public Transportation has approved $5 million to check the potential of constructing a bus-only lane parallel to a long-abandoned rail line, a measure that might connect the Dumbarton Bridge to several towns on the peninsula.
SamTrans uses Regional Measure 3 Funding for a feasibility study, including community outreach, developing alternatives to a dedicated bus lane, conducting an environmental assessment, and starting design work on the project.
The study area includes the rail corridor between the Redwood City Caltrain station within the west and University Avenue in East Palo Alto within the east, in addition to the world one-half mile across the rail corridor.
The dedicated bus lane could eventually connect the Dumbarton Bridge to Redwood City, passing through Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks. A pedestrian or bike path is also included within the project. Currently, the Dumbarton Express, a limited-stop bus service, takes passengers across the bridge from the East Bay to the peninsula, but a dedicated lane is required, officials say.
According to SamTrans, public transit is urgently needed in the world because over 40 percent of households in the world are low-income, 23 percent of families are single-parent households, and 22 percent of households struggle to pay basic needs akin to rent.
“The project would be transformative for communities that SamTrans identifies as priorities for significant mobility improvements,” says a Report from SamTrans staff“The project will improve east-west transport connections to communities on both sides of the Dumbarton Rail Corridor, including access to high-frequency regional transport services at both ends of the corridor.”
The Dumbarton Rail Bridge was inbuilt 1910 by a Southern Pacific paper subsidy company and was, in keeping with the Bayrail Alliance
The line carried primarily freight trains, but from 1912 until not less than 1918 it also provided trans-Bay passenger service, in keeping with the Bayrail Alliance. Rail service was discontinued within the mid-Nineteen Eighties; in 1994, San Mateo County purchased the railroad bridge and track rights from Southern Pacific for future use.
Construction of the project could begin as early as 2030.
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