The securing of $142 million in additional funds this week from the State of California will ensure the completion of three project areas needed to expand ACE service north to Sacramento and south to Ceres.

It will also fund ACE platform extensions at the existing Lathrop/Manteca, Tracy, Vasco Road, Livermore, and Pleasanton stations.

Senate Bill 1 — that made the state gas tax hike possible — provided the initial $500 million in funding to work on extending the commuter train services.

The target is to get the service extension up and running this year.

The $142 million is part of the sixth cycle of the Transit and Intercity Passenger Rail Capital Program.

The additional state resources will help fill funding gaps created by supply chain and inflationary pressures to complete construction while protecting and leveraging significant federal and local investments.

“We would like the thank the administration for its continued support of passenger rail,” states Stacey Mortensen, Executive Director of the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, “The additional funding will help fill funding gaps created by the nationwide supply chain and cost escalation environment. It is our mission to deliver on these projects to bring increased sustainable transportation to the San Joaquin Valley and our neighboring regions.”

In addition to boarding ACE trains at the Lathrop-Manteca station on West Yosemite Avenue to head into the Bay Area, you will be able to catch ACE trains in Manteca as well as Ripon to reach Sacramento as well as San Jose.

Manteca is now working on the parking lot design. At the same time the San Joaquin County Railroad Commission will be locating a passenger platform at a point east of the existing parking lot so when trains load and unload passengers they won’t block the South Main Street railroad crossing.

Funding  for the parking  lot project is from a federal grant.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com