It's not Caltrain, it's not Amtrak... | ACE Trip Report

Come along as we ride the Altamont Corridor Express into the Central Valley in the searing summer heat!

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[pikacuber]

ACE rider here! I like this kind of train, which takes me to my school (partly, but have to use VTA bus) and back. ACE almost always uses Track 1 at Diridon.

[clnb.gaming]

My guy, at no point in time does this train run through a desert. The deserts of California are in the south east.

[MiguelX]

It's a Mediterranean climate, officially, not even close to a desert. ;-;

[CarlosMartinez-ignl]

1:42 ACE did run Saturday service for a little bit as a pilot prior to the pandemic but they unfortunately haven't resumed it yet. They did recently start having special event trains for events at Levi's Stadium.
1:48 That might be due to the fact that Great America is the station that VTA runs shuttles to and from various Silicon Valley employment sites.
5:03 For a second I thought you were going to take the San Joaquin RTD commuter bus to the Dublin/Pleasanton station that I am on while writing this comment but then I remembered that the last outbound bus on weekdays leaves at 3:00. Then I thought you were going to take local RTD buses to the other station but then I remembered there is thruway bus service between the two stations.

[williamwilliam]

The commute from the San Joaquin Valley (Modesto and Stockton) into the Bay Area starts at 4 am and there is a traffic jam at I-5 and I-205 (Tracy) at 5 am. Many San Joaquin Valley commuters start work in the Bay Area at 6 am and go home at 3 pm in an attempt to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic. The median home price in San Jose is $1, 200, 000 while the median home price in Modesto is $500, 000. That's why the ACE Train is what it is and why the ACE Train doesn't run on the weekends. - The ACE Train is being expanded with stations in Manteca, Modesto and Ceres in 2026, a station in Turlock in 2029, and a station next to the Merced High Speed Rail station in 2030.

[stevens]

I had a fun ride on ACE rail back when I used to go with my dad to his office. Long time ago. Anyways I liked your journey. I hope ACE modernizes and improves the of existing routes before branching out. Going up north to Lodi and Sacramento is a no-brainer, of course. Ahhh, the things I would fund if I was a tech billionaire, or something.

[MilliBlom]

I loved the "low budget snack zone" bit, it was great :D

[ghostchris]

8:48 RAHH ANTIOCH MENTIONED WHAT IS URBANIZATION 🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸💥💥

[pacificostudios]

Pardon me for chuckling that the Altamont Pass is "the desert." It's a pretty place, though. 112F is a hot day, any place, including the Central Valley.

[pacificostudios]

Thanks for the warning that the new Venture cars don't have a cafe. On the old trains, the San Joaquin's cafe car was one of the highlights of the trip!

[shreychaudhary]

I did my DMV driving test by the Centerville Amtrak/ACE station! It was a fun time (fun as driving could be 💀) but some really weird intersections around the tracks. Gives "city" vibes even though it isn't that tall. Also a really high church density!

[WildWuff]

Yay, luv entering da low budjet snacc zhone!

[jsrodman]

It's just the ACE, not Desert ACE.

[mikemainer]

ACE is a typical example of American commuter rail done half ass.
Too few trips on weekdays. Not a goddamn train on weekends and holidays.
No effort to link to BART.
No effort to schedule trains with those of Caltran.
No effort to serve sporting events in San Jose or Levi Stadium.
Poor or zero effort to connect with local transit.
Separate ticketing system that is different from every other commuter system on the East Bay.
Horribly slow train ride that uses too many dangerous street level crossings.
Environmentally unfriendly diesel trains.