The longest uninterrupted ride on BART -- the 10-mile stretch between the Castro Valley and Dublin/Pleasanton stations -- will be broken by a new station that starts construction next month. A pair of ceremonies this morning, one in Dublin and then a second in Pleasanton, celebrates the groundbreaking on the stop known informally as the West Dublin/Pleasanton station. It's the first BART station to be built with some private funding, the first new station to be built on an existing BART line, and the first to be designed with a surrounding transit village that includes two parking garages, housing, shops, a restaurant and a hotel. It is scheduled to open in 2009. The yet-unnamed station will straddle Interstate 580 at Golden Gate Drive in Dublin's main business district. The station platform, within walking distance of Stoneridge Mall, will sit in the I-580 median and include pedestrian bridges. 

 

"It straddles the line into two different cities, and it took the efforts of both to make it happen,'' said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. "It's a project that's going to benefit both cities.'' 

 

The $87.5 million station will be paid for with a combination $15 million in state and local grants, $15 million in private funds from the developers and $57.5 million raised from bonds that will be repaid with fares and parking charges from the station. Developer Jones Lang LaSalle/Ampelon Development is building and financing the $100 million transit village. BART's original plan for the $543 million Dublin/Pleasanton extension, opened in 1997, called for stations in Castro Valley and at the end of the line in Dublin with a third station planned near Stoneridge Mall when money allowed. In 1999, BART signed an exclusive negotiating agreement with Jones Lang LaSalle to build the station and transit village. Environmental studies for the project were completed in 2001. 

 

BART officials estimate that by 2013, about 8,560 riders a day will use the station. It's not clear how many of those riders now use nearby stations. The transit village will have 210 homes, a 150-room hotel and a 7,500-square-foot restaurant in Dublin, and a 170,000-square-foot office building in Pleasanton. The developer has petitioned Pleasanton for approval to build 350 units of rental housing instead of the office space. A 419-space parking garage is planned for Pleasanton; a 713-space garage is planned in Dublin.  Construction of the station should not interrupt train service, Johnson said. Riders traveling between Castro Valley and Dublin/Pleasanton will have their trips extended by about a minute due to the new stop.