Valley Link
Transportation authority in northern California
Valley Link is a proposed 26-mile-long (42 km) hybrid rail line in Northern California, which seeks to connect the rapid transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area with the northern San Joaquin Valley via the Tri-Valley region. Since 1997, BART's Blue Line's eastern terminus is at Dublin/Pleasanton station on the border of Dublin and Pleasanton. Valley Link seeks to extend rail service east from here into the northern San Joaquin Valley over Altamont Pass, which would help alleviate traffic congestion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Interstate 580 (I-580). The project resulted from various failed proposals to extend the Blue Line east to Livermore.
The line would run within the median of Interstate 580 (I-580), right-of-way of the first transcontinental railroad owned by Alameda County, and new right-of-way in San Joaquin County. It is being planned by the Tri-Valley – San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority, a special-purpose district body formed for the sole purpose of its planning. Valley Link is ultimately planned to run between Dublin/Pleasanton station and the Altamont Corridor Express’s (ACE) future North Lathrop station utilizing standard-gauge zero-emission trainsets. The initial operating phase is proposed to be the line between Dublin/Pleasanton station and Vasco Road, with the segments to Mountain House Community station and North Lathrop in the San Joaquin Valley being reserved for future planning. This segment is as of June 2025 in planning, with construction to begin as early as 2028.
History
About 12 miles (19 km) of the first transcontinental railroad right of way through the Tri-Valley and Altamont Pass, originally established in 1869 by the old Western Pacific Railroad, was deeded to Alameda County by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1984.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Valley Link” is transportation authority in northern California. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Valley, Link and Transportation, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “transportation authority in northern California” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q54933094. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997, 2025, 2028 and 1869.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Valley Link” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.