Title
Discuss Link21: New Regional Rail/Transbay Rail Crossing Project Update (Discussion)
Body
BACKGROUND
The City of Alameda supports a rail station in Alameda as part of Link21 - the new regional rail and transbay rail crossing project between San Francisco and Oakland. In 2013, Mayor Marie Gilmore formally requested BART to consider BART to Alameda and to include Alameda in its planning efforts. As part of the City's Transportation Choices Plan outreach effort in 2015, the City conducted a statistically significant public opinion survey to gauge attitudes, and two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) strongly support (47 percent) or support somewhat (18 percent) a BART station in Alameda. Consequently, the Transportation Choices Plan (2018) included "BART to Alameda" as one of the long-term projects.
Link21 is sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) and the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (Capitol Corridor) to transform the passenger rail network serving the 21-county Northern California Megaregion, which includes the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay area, the Sacramento area, and the Northern San Joaquin Valley. At the core of Link21 is a new transbay rail crossing project between Oakland and San Francisco as either regional rail or BART technology. In addition to the new transbay rail crossing, Link21 will include other projects to improve the reliability, frequency, capacity, and hours of service for Northern California's rail network.
DISCUSSION
Link21 staff regularly present status reports at the Transportation Commission with meetings in July 2020, September 2021 and now in March 2023. Link21 staff also plan to present a regional rail status update to the City Council on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, and will continue to present regular status reports at the Transportation Commission each year. Previously, Link21 staff highlighted work to date on the early exploratory phase of the project with a market...
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