The Oakland Subdivision is a
Union Pacific Railroad line in the
U.S. state of
California. It extends from
Stockton Stockton may refer to:
Places Australia
* Stockton, New South Wales
* Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
New Zealand
*Stockton, New Zealand
United Kingdom
*Stockton, Cheshire
*Stockton, Norfolk
*Stockton, Chirbu ...
in the east to
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
,
crossing the
Diablo Range at
Altamont Pass
Altamont Pass, formerly Livermore Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Diablo Range of Northern California between Livermore in the Livermore Valley and Tracy in the San Joaquin Valley. The name is actually applied to two distinct but nearby c ...
and traversing
Niles Canyon. The line was originally built by the
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
as the final Pacific leg of their
Feather River Route — it was acquired by Union Pacific upon their purchase of
Southern Pacific
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 ...
. For its length, the line largely parallels the route of the
First transcontinental railroad
North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...
, the
Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870), though the Subdivision was laid out decades after the Western Pacific.
The line north and west of Niles has seen a reduction in freight movements as operations are consolidated on the parallel
Niles Subdivision
The Niles Subdivision is a Union Pacific railway line which runs from Oakland, California to Newark, California in the East Bay.
Route
The line largely consists of the original Western Pacific East Bay main line between Oakland and Niles. T ...
.
trains operate on the line from Niles to
Lathrop and the southern leg of the
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which uses ...
system was constructed in the rail line's
right of way between
Fruitvale and
Union City in the early 1970s.
References
Rail lines in California
Union Pacific Railroad lines
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