Manteca residents sometime next decade will be able to take a short drive to the northeast part of Lathrop, park their cars, and then take rail to San Francisco.
It will require one train transfer to do so.
But before then sometime after 2028, they can take Interstate 205 to the Mountain House Expressway just west of Tracy, park in a 3,000-stall parking lot, and get aboard Valley Link there to connect with BART.
That is in addition to hopping aboard a train in downtown Manteca and ending up in San Jose or Sacramento.
It is future that awaits commuters and travelers alike in Manteca that will be able to access what will be an extensive rail connectivity system that will bring together the fledgling Valley Link project, ACE, CalRail, and Amtrak.
Bill O’Hair, Valley Link’s Director of Rail Engineering and Construction, updated Manteca Rotarians Thursday at Ernie’s Rendezvous Room on the initial 22-mile phase that is tentatively targeted to be up and running sometime after 2028.
A second phase would connect Valley Link that will use hydrogen powered train sets with the ACE transfer station being built in eastern Lathrop at the former Sharpe Depot site less than a mile from the Airport Way and Lathrop Road intersection in Manteca.
The Mountain House Valley Link station’s parking lot at 3,000 spaces will be the largest in the South County. That compares to 1,992 parking spaces at Orchard Valley anchored by Bass Pro in Manteca.
There is enough land to allow a second phase expansion that could take the parking lot to 6,000 spaces.
The reason for the massive parking is simple.
Until Valley Link is extended to Lathrop that would also include a Tracy station, commuters in Tracy, Lathrop, Manteca, and Ripon will have to drive to Mountain House to board a Valley Link train to reach the BART station.
That is in addition to commuters farther away such as in Modesto, Stockton, and beyond.
Once at the Dublin/Pleasanton station, it is just a 250-foot walk on a pedestrian path beneath the freeway to reach the BART station.
In the next three years, ACE train service will be extended to Sacramento and Ceres.
You will be able to board ACE trains in downtown Manteca to reach San Jose as well as Sacramento,
And when the second phase of Valley Link is extended to Lathrop, riders that boarded the ACE train in Ripon, Manteca Modesto, and Ceres will be able to transfer to Valley Link in Lathrop.
Initial plans call for one-way trips from Mountain House to the BART station to take 32½ minutes including stops in between in Livermore and Isabel Road.
Ten train sets of four cars each will make 40 daily round trips.
The expectation is there will be a reverse commute of people in the Livermore area who work in Tracy.
Ridership projections, that are in the process of being updated, project just under 10,000 riders daily when Valley Link starts operations.
That number is expected to expand to 33,000 by 2040.
The Vallet Link rail will go down the middle of part of Interstate 580. That will require shifting part of the freeway’s eastbound lanes to the north.
Once the line reaches the northern part of Livermore, it will fly-over the freeway and generally follow a corridor used by the first transcontinental railroad.
ACE work starting soon
Work is expected to start on the downtown Manteca ACE train passenger platform in 2025.
A center loaded platform and pedestrian crossing will be built adjacent to the existing Manteca Transit Center along Moffat Boulevard.
This would allow for boarding when double tracking is in place.
Additional parking will be added almost to Garfield Avenue.
The Manteca work will cost $25 million and take 22 months to construct. Part of the cost deals with working around a PG&E pipeline.
The project is one of several taking place to bring ACE service to downtown by the end of 2026.
The platform is located in a manner that when trains are loading and unloading passengers the Main Street crossing will not be blocked.
The platform structure that includes bridges over the tracks and an elevator for handicapped access will match the architectural motif of the nearby transit center with its four-sided clock tower on the southeast corner of Main Street and Moffat Boulevard.
The platform will utilize the existing bus drop-off area to connect Manteca Transit, San Joaquin Regional Transit and Modesto Area Express transit busses to the station.
While most tickets are purchased online, the station will have a ticket vending machine as well.
State and federal funds are helping cover the cost of the platform work and parking lot expansion.
The city will provide overnight security as an extension of the private service that is now in place.
Other new stations opening by the end of 2026 are in Modesto, Ceres, Madera, Oakley, Natomas, Midtown Sacramento, and Elk Grove.
By the end of 2027, stations will open in Ripon, Lodi, and the new Lathrop Transfer station at Sharpe Depot off of Lathrop Road.
That will allow new ACE round trips from Ceres to Natomas that can be boarded in downtown Manteca with the ability to transfer to San Jose at North Lathrop Transfer Station.
The transfer station in north Lathrop includes a parking lot, a drop-off zone, a long-covered pedestrian bridge to reach a center loading platform, bus transfer center, bicycle and pedestrian access and an access road for West Lathrop Road.
The parking lot could ultimately be expanded to handle 3,500 stalls. That would make it the largest parking lot in the South County with a capacity rivaling large regional malls.
It also involves double tracking to a point south of the Manteca station including upgrades at numerous road crossings.
The work would cost $30 million plus and take 23 months.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
