The $400 million Valley Rail Project which will add train service from Rio Linda to Silicon Valley has taken steps forward this week.

Later this week, the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission will award design contracts for the train stations planned for the Sacramento area as part of the Valley Rail Program.

This project includes five train stations in the Sacramento area, including in Rio Linda, that passengers could use to board the train to Oakland, San Jose, or as far as Bakersfield.

Final designs, community outreach, and land acquisition could take around 18 months, and construction could begin after that.

The Natomas/Sacramento Airport Station (the Rio Linda station) would be constructed on an 8.4-acre site along the eastern side of Blacktop Road just south of West Elkhorn Boulevard. Access to the station would be provided via Blacktop Road. The site proposed for Natomas/Sacramento Airport Station is currently developed with commercial/industrial.

Improvements that would be constructed as part of the Natomas/Sacramento Airport Station East Alternative include:

• Construction of a 15-foot-wide by 1,000-foot-long at-grade side-loading passenger platform.
• Construction of a surface parking lot providing approximately 250 parking spaces and 3 bus bays.

The Natomas/Sacramento Airport Station would include passenger amenities such as platform shelters (approximately 8 to 10 feet high), benches, lighting, security cameras, signage, ticketing machines, bicycle storage facilities, landscaping, and emergency call boxes. Shuttle services to and from Sacramento International Airport would be provided and timed to meet all incoming and
departing trains.

Other stations to be built would be in North Sacramento, near the intersection of El Monte Avenue and Acoma Street, in Midtown Sacramento, between Q and R streets along 19th Street, and at Sacramento City College, next to the City College light rail station.

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