The Iron Horse Regional Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

for pedestrians, horse riders and bicycles in the

East Bay Area The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. This trail is located in inland central

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

and Contra Costa counties, mostly following a

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

established in 1891 and abandoned in 1977. The two counties purchased the right of way at that time, intending to use it as a transportation corridor; the Iron Horse Trail was first established in 1986. In 2003, BART proposed to also use the right-of-way for a DMU line from

Walnut Creek station Walnut Creek station is an elevated Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Walnut Creek, California, served by the . The station is located north of downtown Walnut Creek, adjacent to Interstate 680 and near the Ygnacio Valley Road and Calif ...

to Tracy via Pleasanton. The trail passes through the cities of Pleasanton,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, San Ramon, Danville, Alamo,

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

, Pleasant Hill and

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

. When completed, the trail will span from Livermore in central Alameda County to

Suisun Bay Suisun Bay ( ; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the ent ...

at the northern edge of Contra Costa County, a distance of over connecting two counties and nine communities. The trail also directly connects to both the Dublin/Pleasanton and Pleasant Hill

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

stations. The trail is maintained by the East Bay Regional Park District. It is a wheelchair accessible paved trail along with adjacent unpaved or soft trails in certain areas. The Iron Horse Regional Trail has several bridges over busy thoroughfares to help improve traffic flow; two notable ones cross over Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek and Treat Boulevard in Contra Costa Centre. Additional bridges are in the planning process. Despite initial skepticism, and even opposition, the trail is now a major transportation and recreation corridor. One million trips are made each year on the path.

Pleasanton/Alameda County segments

The city of Pleasanton initially chose not to preserve the transportation corridor within its city limits. Although the

East Bay Regional Park District The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which ...

(EBRPD) still controlled the right of way, multiple developments were built encompassing the corridor, most notably

Hacienda Business Park Hacienda Business Park is a 900-acre (364 hectare) mixed-use job center and housing development in Pleasanton, California. History Approved in 1982 and ratified by Pleasanton voters in 1983, the business park covers approximately 20 square blocks ...

. The first work on the trail in Pleasanton began in March 2006, creating a new section about long on the south side of the city. This segment opened in March 2008, leaving a gap in the trail extending approximately from the Dublin side of the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station to Santa Rita Road near the Stoneridge Drive intersection, where the new segment began. In February 2011, the Pleasanton City Council voted to ratify the EBRPD master plan, based on public meetings held the previous year, to complete the trail within the city. $4 million in regional and federal grants was allocated to complete the BART-to-Santa Rita section of the trail. Construction began in May 2013, and was completed in July 2014. The project accommodated several obstacles, including routing through an existing business campus, two city parks, a residential development, an apartment complex, and three at-grade crossings of busy roads; it connects with the earlier southern segment at the intersection of two major streets. In April 2013, another new trail segment opened along Stanley Boulevard on the north side of Shadow Cliffs Lake in unincorporated Alameda County. This leaves a gap between the end of the Pleasanton portion of the trail and the west end of this new segment. The East Pleasanton Specific Plan Project includes plans to complete this gap along future extensions to Busch Road and El Charro Road to Stanley Boulevard. A 2022 project extended this segment from the Livermore city limits at the intersection of Stanley Boulevard and Isabel Avenue with a trail paralleling Stanley Avenue on its north side to a new bridge over Murrieta Boulevard; the trail dead-ends about past the bridge.

References

External links

Iron Horse Regional Trail - East Bay Regional Park

* Nearb
Hiking Trails in Contra Costa County - Walnut Creek Wiki
{{California hiking trails East Bay Regional Park District Rail trails in California Trails in the San Francisco Bay Area Bike paths in the San Francisco Bay Area Parks in Alameda County, California Parks in Contra Costa County, California Transportation in Alameda County, California Transportation in Contra Costa County, California Concord, California Danville, California Dublin, California Amador Valley Livermore Valley Pleasant Hill, California Geography of Pleasanton, California San Ramon, California Walnut Creek, California Protected areas established in 1986 1986 establishments in California