Union City station is a

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 and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

(BART)

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

Union City, California Union City is a city in Alameda County, California, United States in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population in the 2020 census was 70,143, up from 69,628 in the 2010 census. It is located approximately south of Oakland, from San Franci ...

. The station sits near Decoto Road east of Alvarado-Niles Road, directly behind the

James Logan High School James Logan High School (also known as JLHS or Logan) is a public high school located in Union City, California. It is part of the New Haven Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay Area. Awards In 1994 and 1998, Logan was recognized as ...

campus. The station is served by the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

lines. Local bus service is provided by Union City Transit and

AC Transit AC Transit is the main Public transport bus service, bus transit operator in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. AC Transit is the third largest bus operator in California, serving the western portions of Alameda and C ...

History

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 ...

(WP) opened through

Decoto Decoto is a neighborhood of Union City, California originally established as a separate community. It is located north-northwest of downtown Newark, along California State Route 238. History In 1867, Ezra Decoto, a local landowner sold land t ...

in 1909. Passenger service began on August 22, 1910; both of the two daily round trips stopped at Decoto. A local train timed for commuting to Oakland and San Francisco was added on October 1. The commuter train was discontinued in 1914, leaving just two daily round trips. One of the two daily round trips ceased stopping at Decoto and other local stations in January 1919. The WP reduced service on the line to one daily train (the ''Scenic Limited'') during the 1930s, but added the '' Exposition Flyer'' in 1939. Decoto continued to be a

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a bus stop, stop or train station, station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or drop ...

served by the daily ''Feather River Express'' until around 1942. BART built its Fremont line using the Western Pacific alignment (

Oakland Subdivision The Oakland Subdivision is a Union Pacific Railroad line in the U.S. state of California. It extends from Stockton in the east to Oakland, crossing the Diablo Range at Altamont Pass and traversing Niles Canyon. The line was originally built by ...

), with a station south of the former WP station site. The BART Board approved the name "Union City" for the station in December 1965. Service at the station began on September 11, 1972. Due to a national strike that year by elevator constructors, elevator construction on the early stations was delayed. Elevators at most of the initial stations, including Union City, were completed in the months following the opening. The fare lobby features tile mosaics designed by

Jean Varda Jean "Yanko" Varda (11 September 189310 January 1971) was a Turkish-born American artist, best known for his collage work. Varda was one of the early adopters of the Sausalito houseboat lifestyle that was popular in the 1960s–1970s. He was the ...

and constructed by Alfonso Pardiñas. The station was not originally served by buses. "The Flea" (now Union City Transit) began operating in Union City in 1974.

service was expanded to Fremont in November 1974, and to Newark that December, with some routes serving Union City station. AC Transit began operating service between Union City station and Palo Alto station over the Dumbarton Bridge – later branded

Dumbarton Express Dumbarton Express is a regional public transit service in the San Francisco Bay Area connecting Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties via the Dumbarton Bridge, the system's namesake. The bus service is funded by a consortium of five tr ...

– on September 10, 1984. As built, the station only had access from Union Way. In 2008, construction started on a reconfiguration of the parking lots, which included a new station roadway connecting to Decoto Road. The work was intended to improve access to the station, particularly from new development on the east side of the tracks. A commuter rail platform for existing ''

Capitol Corridor The ''Capitol Corridor'' is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, California, San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, California, Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two ...

'' service and the proposed

Dumbarton Rail Corridor The Dumbarton Rail Corridor is a proposed transbay passenger rail line which would reuse the right-of-way that was initially constructed from 1907–1910 as the Dumbarton Rail Bridge, Dumbarton Cut-off. The Dumbarton Cut-off includes the first ...

was also proposed in 2008. (Later plans have called for the ''Capitol Corridor'' to be rerouted over the

Coast Line Coast Line may refer to: * Coast Line (California), a railroad line * Coast Line (Denmark), a railroad line * Coast Line (Sri Lanka), a railroad line See also * Coastline A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea ...

to the west, which would not permit a Union City stop). The parking lot and roadway work was completed in March 2012, with buses using new stops adjacent to the station entrance. The next round of changes to the station were made in anticipation of a future entrance on the east side of the station. This would allow direct access from

transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of Real estate development, urban development that maximizes the amount of Residential area, residential, business and leisure space within Pedestrian, walking distance of public t ...

(TOD) of former industrial sites east of the station. A expanded ground-level fare lobby with provisions for future pedestrian pass-through outside the paid area was completed in 2017. That year, the

California Public Utilities Commission The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition ...

approved plans for an at-grade pedestrian crossing of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

in lieu of a more expensive grade-separated crossing. Construction work on Phase 2A, which added two new escalators to the east (northbound) BART platform, took place from 2019 to December 2022. , construction on the pedestrian crossing is expected to be complete by 2025. , BART anticipates soliciting a developer between 2029 and 2033 for TOD to replace existing surface parking lots at the station. Some

Altamont Corridor Express The Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) 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. Service is managed by the San Joaquin Regional R ...

(ACE) services are planned to be expanded to Union City, with a new platform on the Oakland Subdivision adjacent to the BART station. Three daily ACE round-trips are proposed to serve the station by 2030: two Union City–

Merced Merced (; Spanish language, 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 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 86,333, up ...

round trips and one Union City– Natomas round trip.

References

External links

BART – Union City Station
{{Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in Alameda County, California Stations on the Orange Line (BART) Stations on the Green Line (BART) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1972 Bus stations in Alameda County, California 1972 establishments in California Future Altamont Corridor Express stations