The Fresno Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

owned and operated by the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

. Mostly built by the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was ...

in the 1870s, the line traverses the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

on a northwest to southeast alignment.

Route

The Fresno Subdivision runs from

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

through the centers of several cities in the eastern

to Bakersfield, California. From its interchange with the

Martinez Subdivision The Martinez subdivision is a Union Pacific railway line which runs from Roseville, California to Oakland, California. It is informally referred to as the Cal-P line, after the original California Pacific Railroad, who constructed the line from ...

in the north, it runs south through Elk Grove,

Lodi Lodi may refer to: Places Canada * Lodi, Ontario, a community in North Stormont, Ontario, Canada Italy * Lodi, Lombardy, in the Province of Lodi of the Lombardy region ** Treaty of Lodi, 1454 between Italian city-states ** Battle of Lodi, 1796 in ...

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 ...

, Manteca,

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...

Merced Merced (; Spanish for "Mercy") is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California, United States, in the San Joaquin Valley. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 86,333, up from 78,958 in 2010. Incorporated on A ...

, and Madera before entering Fresno. The line intersects with the BNSF Railway

Stockton Subdivision The Stockton Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of California owned by the BNSF Railway. It runs from the Port of Richmond, where trains interchange with the Richmond Pacific Railroad, to Fresno where the railway continues south as ...

at Stockton, forming the

Stockton Diamond The Stockton Diamond is a railway junction just south of downtown Stockton, California, near the intersection of Aurora Street South and East Scotts Avenue. It is the point where the north–south running Union Pacific Fresno Subdivision line cr ...

. It largely parallels the BNSF Railway

and

California State Route 99 State Route 99 (SR 99), commonly known as Highway 99 or, simply, as 99 (without any further designation), is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California, stretching almost the entire length of the Central Valley. F ...

Operations

The line is primarily used for freight movements. a total of 16 trains daily operated between Fresno and Stockton, with 12 operating between Stockton and Sacramento. The

San Joaquin Valley Railroad The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Pacific Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's C ...

has

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

over the line south of Fresno.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

and the

Altamont Corridor Express The Altamont Corridor Express (also known as ACE, formerly Altamont Commuter Express) is a commuter rail service in California, connecting Stockton and San Jose during peak hours only. ACE is named for the Altamont Pass, through which it runs ...

operate passenger trains over the northern segment of line. Altamont Corridor Express is also expanding its service area, with new stations along the line planned as far south as Merced.

History

The line was largely built by the Southern Pacific Railway in the late 1800s. The tracks between Sacramento and Lathrop run on the route of the original

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North America. Incorpo ...

. The branch line from Lathrop reached Goshen in August 1872, Delano in July the following year, and had extended past Bakersfield to Caliente in 1875. The merger of Southern Pacific and Union Pacific in 1996 brought the line under its current ownership. of the line between Ceres and Turlock is expected to be

double-tracked Double tracking or doubling is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or bigger sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument ...

as part of the Altamont Corridor Express expansion.

References

External links

Rail lines in California Southern Pacific Railroad Union Pacific Railroad lines {{California-transport-stub