The Iron Horse Trail’s role in transportation along the I-680 corridor is starting to come into focus after decades of proposals and debates.
District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen provided a presentation on the latest developments in the current planning process to both the Danville and San Ramon councils in recent weeks.
Those updates include a design phase that is currently underway envisioning an express bicycle lane along the trail, with a pilot project between the current and future trail overcrossings in San Ramon on the horizon following a 2020 study by the county that evaluated the potential for a “bicycle super-highway.”
While that possibility is set to be further explored and experimented with the upcoming pilot project, other ideas floated in the 2020 study — such as the potential for running an autonomous shuttle along the trail — are not moving forward at this stage.
“I wanted it studied as part of the 2020 study, because it’s an intriguing concept, especially as you’re trying to get people to Bart and where we — between Dublin and Walnut Creek — we do not have a station,” Andersen said at Tuesday’s Danville Town Council meeting. “Would that work someday? Who knows with the technology down the road. But that is not part of the project.”
“When we presented this trail study to Alamo, I was accused of wanting to run double decker buses outside people’s homes along the Iron Horse Trail — that’s not part of the plan,” she added.
However, the original plan when the county acquired the right of way 50 years ago – and part of the condition of the three grants from the California Transportation Commission used to fund the purchase – was the construction of a bus or other mass transit method along what had once been known as the San Ramon Branch corridor of the Western Pacific Railroad.
The county had been required as a condition of the grants to “identify by June 30, 1989, a specific project for constructing a busway or exclusive mass transit guideway.” Andersen noted that the state did not seek to collect on the debt — an estimated $10 million at present-day inflation rates — following the deadline. But it did require the county to maintain the right of way for the development of some form of mass transit at some point in the future.
That prospect was met with outcry from residents and elected officials alike, including former county supervisor and Danville councilmember Millle Greenberg when Andersen initially began discussing the project.
“I was talking to her about how I understood that the Iron Horse Trail was someday going to be a mass transit, and she just looked at me and said over my dead body,” Andersen said. “And so that was kind of my first introduction to oh, not everyone wants to see mass transit here.”
While the trail in its current form would go on to take shape by the turn of the century, it wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that the county got off the hook for developing mass transit along the corridor, with a 2017 assembly bill from current state Sen. Tim Grayson that removed the requirement, along with the state’s right to reimbursement.
The bill also required an amendment to the bylaws for the Iron Horse Corridor Management Program Advisory Committee to include a seat for a Contra Costa Transit Authority representative and to “consider proposals to study new emerging mobility modes and technologies for the trail” — giving way to initial talks with an autonomous shuttle company, and the inclusion of that option in the 2020 study.
“Glydways was just starting to launch their project, and I met with them when they were still — I would say when they were still known as Wayfair — Glydways is an autonomous pod that can travel about in the width of a bicycle lane,” Andersen said.
Lifting the county’s requirement to maintain a 34-foot clearance for a future mass transit option also paved the way for San Ramon’s Iron Horse Trail overcrossing for bicyclists and pedestrians only at Bollinger Canyon Road, which was developed in the years that ensued and opened to the public last year.
Since then, Andersen has gone on to initiate the design phase for the first phase of the long-anticipated and debated dual tracking project, which she estimated was currently 65% complete.
“I didn’t want to have this project sitting forever, and so I was able to allocate about half a million dollars of park impact fees that we had in unincorporated parts of San Ramon to design the first segment of the dual tracking,” Andersen said.
While the autonomous shuttle concept is not currently being pursued, a contentious – and more prominent – new transportation technology is at the heart of the current concept.
“How many of you have been on the Iron Horse Trail almost run over by kids on an e-bike? OK, almost everybody in here has their hands raised,” Andersen said at Tuesday’s meeting in Danville. “It’s frustrating; it’s challenging, and yes, there’s some really good state laws that should regulate it more for youth.”
“But the reality is that we do have people who have the ability to utilize e-bikes as an alternative mode of transportation for the last mile that could connect someone to a BART station,” she added.
Another factor in the development of the “bicycle expressway” pilot project is reducing conflict between pedestrians and bicyclists, which Andersen noted has been ongoing since before the rise of e-bikes.
A crucial next step in the development of the pilot project is securing the estimated $2 to $3 million in funding required, with Rep. Mark DeSaulnier having made a congressionally directed spending request for $1.5 million according to Andersen.
Andersen said the county will be seeking grant funding for the remaining portion from the state park system’s trails program, the Association of Bay Area Governments, One Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and other programs administered by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority.
“I would love to see it built next year,” Andersen said. “We’re hopeful to have these plans done by the end of the year. And then, we’ve got to, of course, go out for an RFP and ensure that we have the funding in place.”
“But I’d love to see it done in 2027, because there’s a lot going on the following year, and I want to demonstrate the value of this bicycle expressway for the community and future,” she continued.
While the pilot project is centered in San Ramon, Andersen said that its next phase could be in Danville, with the trail segment between Crow Canyon and Sycamore Valley roads being eyed as a top candidate.
Another option Andersen said she is eying is the segment of trail adjacent to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station.
“I’ve had very informal discussions with people in Alameda County,” Andersen said. “Wouldn’t it be great through Dublin, and we could also get them to do a bifurcated Trail. They have that new beautiful bridge in downtown Dublin to take you right to the Dublin Bart station.”
“And when you have job centers in San Ramon, Danville as well, getting people to Bart, who are commuting even further — I think that would be terrific,” she continued.
More information and updates on the project are available via Andersen’s county webpage.
