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Planners ponder Niles train depot

By Matt Carter
STAFF WRITER 

PLEASANTON -- The train lurches to a stop. A couple walking a dog has let it wander onto the 6 miles of track that volunteers with the Pacific Locomotive Association have painstakingly laid in Niles Canyon on the former Southern Pacific right-of-way.

The train stops in time. On the trip from Sunol to Fremont's historic Nilesdistrict, the engineer of the diesel locomotive hasn't let it go much faster than a person can run.

But some of the volunteers who have turned out to man the train for a special run Thursday evening are visibly angry. Sure enough, the dog incident comes up later that night, as Pleasanton residents drawing up a long-term plan for the city's downtown debate whether the Niles Canyon Railway should be allowed to stop there.

Members of Pleasanton's Downtown Specific Plan committee board the train in Niles for the trip back to Sunol. In the next 18 months, the committee will submit a detailed plan for downtown for consideration by the City Council.

The Pacific Locomotive Association hopes the Downtown Specific Plan the Council approves will allow space for the Niles Canyon Railway to stop in downtown Pleasanton.

The organization estimates that restoring the historic rail line between the two towns could bring Pleasanton as many as 1,100 visitors a day on weekends. That's one reason the project has the backing of the Downtown Association.

For now, the train is limited to excursions from Sunol to Niles and back.There's nowhere for it to turn around in Niles -- or for passengers to get on or off. Members of the downtown committee exit a bus chartered by the railroad volunteers in the gravel next to the tracks and board the train.

A steam locomotive, which backed all the way to Niles, pulls the train back to Sunol. It huffs rhythmically like a draft animal, and a fine mist falls on the more adventurous passengers in the first, open flatbed car -- including Pamela Hardy-Alpert, chairwoman of the downtown committee.

Steel bridges built in 1896 and 1906 carry the train over gullies. Branches hang almost low enough to reach out and touch.

"We have crews that put in a lot of time trimming trees," says volunteer Jeff Williams. "We've got big chippers on wheels."

In Sunol, the bus -- hired at a cost of $275 -- is waiting to take the downtown committee to its meeting in Pleasanton.

At the meeting, the head of Fremont's redevelopment agency says the city has committed $2 million to buy land from Union Pacific for a turnaround in Niles. The city's historic train depot could also be relocated there.

When the incident of the dog on the tracks is brought up, PLA volunteers say it shows how safe their train is.

The Draft Master Plan for the Downtown Parks and Trails System will be presented to the Parks and Recreation Commission at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, at the City Council Chambers, 200 Old Bernal Ave.

The plan will be presented to the Downtown Specific Plan committee 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16 at the Pleasanton Senior Center, 5353 Sunol Blvd. They will hold two town hall meetings on the Downtown Specific Plan in October.

When it coasts into Pleasanton at about 10 mph, it will also be relatively quiet, they say.

The downtown committee makes no decision on the train proposal and asks the PLA volunteers to return to answer more questions at a later date.

Safety, noise and traffic were issues opponents raised when Pacific Railroad Association began lobbying for support to extend its 6-mile line from Sunol to Pleasanton.

In a non-binding, 1996 advisory measure to gauge public opinion, three out of four Pleasanton voters approved the idea of bringing the nonprofit group's vintage trains downtown.

But since then, another plan has emerged for the old Southern Pacific right-of-way that runs next to First Street.

Developed over a two-year period by a citizens task force, city staff and a consultant, the plan calls for a "greenbelt" of parks and trails in the county-owned right-of-way. The plan takes no position on the train, but the task force recommends that it not be allowed to come into Pleasanton past Bernal Avenue.

A draft of the plan -- called the "Master Plan for the Downtown Parks and Trails System" -- will be presented to the downtown committee at its next meeting on Sept. 18.

Among the plan's recommendations are the construction of a new bandstand in an expanded Wayside Park. If incorporated into the Downtown Specific Plan, Wayside and neighboring DeLucchi parks would support performing arts and recreation activities centered around a renovated Fire Station No. 1 at 4444 Railroad Ave.

The proposed renovation of the fire station would result in a 13,750-foot building providing gallery space, offices and multi-purpose rooms for theater performances and classes.

If the Niles Canyon Railway were allowed to build as far as north as Spring Street, there would be no room to expand Wayside Park. And instead of pedestrian and bike trails, a loading platform and two rail lines would separate the fire station and parks.

"The fire station is a good example, if the renovation is done, of a project that will serve many people," says Richard Larson, the consultant who helped prepare the parks and trails plan. "Wayside park has a bandstand, a play area for kids, a plaza ... there's a lot of opportunity for what we call multiple uses.

"The train really doesn't fit in with that, it's sort of a single use, and it overpowers other uses when it's there and when its not there."