# ACE Train



## DowneasterPassenger (Jul 14, 2010)

I've been dying to find an excuse to ride the ACE train since moving to the Central Valley 4 years ago.

It seems like every time I thought about trying it for fun, it was on a weekend, and the train only runs M-F. Finally this week I got a meeting in Mountain View that gave me an excuse to ride this train, and check out the VTA light rail as well!

The other downside is that even the last AM train has a 6:40 AM departure from Stockton, so you gotta get up early to catch this one.

The morning westbound train got quite full by the time we departed Tracy. It seemed like a lot of regular commuters and people who knew each other.

The views of the Altamont pass were spectacular. It's a great advertisement for commuter rail when you see all the traffic jammed on Interstate 580 over the pass. The rail route snakes around and is quite different than the path of I-580. As this is one of the proposed routes for the eventual California HSR, the ACE train gives you a bit of a feeling for what the future might be like.

I disembarked at Great America station. I overheard two people separately asking in conversations, "Is Great America a city?" The signage to the VTA light rail was lacking. A helpful gentleman told me to walk up the stairs (no ADA accesss?) to the overpass and then down to the Lick Mill VTA station.

The VTA light rail to Mountain View takes about half an hour and 14 stops. You pass by a lot of Silicon Valley companies like Motorola, Yahoo, Lockheed-Martin. There are some cool views of NASA Ames and the giant airship hangars there. The VTA goes into a trench for a while, I suppose to avoid being in the path of airplanes landing.

As my destination was Mountain View Caltrain station, I could have taken the ACE train all the way to San Jose and then Caltrain two stops to Mountain View, or the alternative I chose of Great America to Mountain View on the VTA light rail.

I got to Mountain View two hours before my lunch appointment. Walked around downtown, checked out a couple of coffee shops for the wifi. Downtown is accessible from the station by walking. My host took me to lunch at a fairly nice place right by the station called Xanh and sat outside.

After the meeting he gave me a ride back to Great America ("is it a city?") and I slept a little bit on the ACE train home.


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## Cristobal (Jul 14, 2010)

GAC (Great America - Santa Clara) is my "home" station. 

I've been curious about ACE as well but it also doesn't really work for me being just a weekday train. How is the trackage from Stockton? I rode the San Joaquin to and from Fresno for the July 4th weekend and I was surprised by how much rougher the tracks are pretty much from Martinez all the way through to Fresno. The track that the Capitol Corridor uses between SJC and SAC is generally quite a bit smoother than what I experienced on the SJ. Maintained by different railroads perhaps?


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## DowneasterPassenger (Jul 14, 2010)

Cristobal said:


> GAC (Great America - Santa Clara) is my "home" station.
> 
> I've been curious about ACE as well but it also doesn't really work for me being just a weekday train. How is the trackage from Stockton? I rode the San Joaquin to and from Fresno for the July 4th weekend and I was surprised by how much rougher the tracks are pretty much from Martinez all the way through to Fresno. The track that the Capitol Corridor uses between SJC and SAC is generally quite a bit smoother than what I experienced on the SJ. Maintained by different railroads perhaps?


The roughest part in terms of the swaying back and forth was in the tunnel between Pleasanton and Fremont. The highest speed and smoothest track seemed to be between Tracy and where it starts to climb into the pass.

I'm pretty sure that ACE is all UP track and the San Joaquin is BNSF from Bakersfield to Martinez, and UP from Martinez to Oakland. I'm guessing the whole CC is UP, but someone else can probably answer that better.


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## gswager (Jul 14, 2010)

I've rode on ACE 2 or 3 times, mainly for San Jose airport and/to Modesto area. I've heard stories that some people get up at 3 am and board on one of eastern stations and head for work in Silicone Valley. Pretty crazy despite very high property taxes in Silicone Valley.

The roughest part are the tunnels as SanJoaquinRider described. It's the most scenic commuter train I've encountered so far- over Altamont Pass (wind turbines and green in late winter/early spring) and along the marshes of the bay. One sorriest sight is slurry water lagoons in the hills before Tracy station.

The name, Great America, made me scratching my head why they name it.


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## Eric S (Jul 14, 2010)

Isn't Great America Station named for the nearby Great America amusement park and located in the city of Santa Clara?


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## Cristobal (Jul 14, 2010)

Eric S said:


> Isn't Great America Station named for the nearby Great America amusement park and located in the city of Santa Clara?


Yes it is.

Google Map

GAC is actually under the overpass where Tasman crosses over the train tracks and Lafayette.


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## Cristobal (Jul 16, 2010)

SanJoaquinRider said:


> Cristobal said:
> 
> 
> > GAC (Great America - Santa Clara) is my "home" station.
> ...


Interesting discussion about Amtrak and the railroads in the Central Valley:

My link


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## gswager (Jul 17, 2010)

It was an interesting discussion. Still the same things today with SP, now merged into UP. UP is a thorn while BNSF is a rose.


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## evan E (Jul 23, 2010)

I have lived in San Jose my whole life (13 yrs) and have never ridden ACE. I've ridden the capitol Corridor, and san Joaquin but not ACE. Recently, my dad and I were at Alviso, we saw an Ace train. I was surprised to see that it had six passenger cars, and all of them have three levels


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## evan E (Jul 23, 2010)

Cristobal said:


> SanJoaquinRider said:
> 
> 
> > Cristobal said:
> ...





I think youre right about BNSF.


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