Construction begins on ACE rail branch to Stanislaus County, Merced. When will it arrive?

History was just made beside a railroad track in Lathrop, where the Altamont Corridor Express is expanding southward.

The first construction is taking place after seven years of planning on the complex project. The initial task does not involve laying track, but rather building a concrete culvert for a canal that ACE will cross.

A culvert might not seem all that dramatic as public works go, but it nonetheless prompted a ceremonial ground-breaking Tuesday. The contractor, Shimmick Corp. of Irvine, actually began the $6.9 million job in early May.

The 384-foot-long culvert “is the first step in delivering the infrastructure necessary to connect Stanislaus and Merced counties directly to the Tri-Valley and San Jose,” Tracy Mayor Nancy Young said. She chairs the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, which oversees ACE.

The system has run since 1998 between Stockton and San Jose, with four weekday round trips timed for commuters to Bay Area jobs. It stops along the way at the Lathrop/Manteca border and in Tracy, Livermore, Pleasanton, Fremont and Santa Clara. The Tri-Valley region mentioned by the mayor lies west of Altamont Pass.

Fuel tax on drivers funds rail

ACE got its first expansion funding in 2017, when $400 million was allotted from a state fuel tax on drivers. The planners aimed for stations by 2023 in the downtowns of Manteca, Ripon, Modesto and Ceres. The branch would reach Turlock, Livingston and Merced by 2027 under that timeline.

The project has been slowed in part because ACE is using a busy Union Pacific Railroad freight corridor. That company must sign off on every design segment, including second tracks where needed to avoid conflict with passenger trains. ACE also has had more trouble than expected with gas and other utility lines in the corridor.

The current schedule calls for stations in Manteca, Modesto and Ceres by late 2026. Ripon would get an infill stop the next year, and Turlock would see trains in 2029. Livingston and Merced would follow sometime between 2030 and 2033.

Modesto already has had construction related to ACE: the remodeling of the 1915 depot building on Ninth Street. But this work did not take place within the UP corridor, where a passenger platform and second track still must be built.

ACE also is expanding to Sacramento

ACE has separate funding for a branch to Sacramento on roughly the same timeline. It will have stations west of Lodi, in northwest Elk Grove and at four locations in Sacramento.

The northern stations also will serve an expansion of the Amtrak San Joaquins line. It now has five daily round trips between Bakersfield and Oakland and a sixth branching to Sacramento. The capital will reach a total of 12 trains on ACE and Amtrak, part of $1.8 billion in total funding for the two systems.

ACE and Amtrak would both feed passengers to the high-speed rail line between Merced and Bakersfield. It is under construction on much of this stretch but needs several billion dollars more for completion.

Stanislaus County Supervisor Vito Chiesa is on the Amtrak board and also has promoted the ACE expansion.

“This opens up all of Northern California for Stanislaus County residents to ride rail just about anywhere,” he said at the culvert ground-breaking.

ACE and Amtrak will have a total of 18 daily trains to Merced within a decade, some from the Bay Area. That will mean “almost hourly service,” Chiesa said.

About 100,000 commuters drive Altamont Pass

ACE aims to draw many of the 100,000 or so commuters who now drive to Bay Area jobs from the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Amtrak has mainly leisure travelers, but they, too, could have a cheap and climate-friendly option.

The culvert is for a canal is owned by the South San Joaquin Irrigation District. It carries water draining from farmland, as well as storm runoff in part of Manteca.

The culvert is close to the generally east-west track that now carries ACE trains. The expansion will be on a north-south freight corridor about a quarter-mile away. It will require a connector track to be installed under a separate contract next year.

The connection will allow an ACE train from Ceres to turn toward San Jose upon the 2026 launch. Future round trips will use a new station in north Lathrop, where riders on both branches can transfer.

The north Lathrop station also could be shared by the proposed Valley Link system, connecting in Dublin with Bay Area Rapid Transit. The planners are still assembling the funding.