Apr. 27—CHICO — The North Valley Rail Project plan has been updated for April, which proposes four new daily train routes connecting Chico to the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and two routes to High Speed Rail.
It's a long way until its target date in 2031, but a strategic plan is near final, currently awaiting approval by the Butte County Association of Governments and available at northvalleyrail.org.
The project plans an initial rollout with four new stations — Chico, Gridley, Yuba City- Marysville and Plumas Lake — in a line through Midtown Sacramento. Projected annual trips in Chico would increase about 166,000.
Four daily roundtrip connections from Chico are proposed in the April strategic plan draft, according to a presentation Thursday with Daniel Krause, transportation planner with the infrastructure consulting firm Aecom.
Krause said anticipated travel markets include commuting, business and leisure to the Bay Area, Sacramento and for interregional travel.
One daily roundtrip would connect Chico to the Bay Area at a planned station in Union City with direct connections to Bay Area Rapid Transit and local bus services. Krause said this station would further connect to the south Bay Area and Silicon Valley.
A second daily roundtrip would connect to Stockton, with connections to the Bay Area and to a planned high speed rail station in downtown Merced.
And two roundtrips would provide direct "one-seat" rides straight to the planned downtown Merced station.
Trip times from Chico to Merced's planned high speed rail station are estimated to be about three and a half hours; and from Chico to Union City and BART about four hours, according to Krause.
Travel times locally from Chico are estimated at 24 minutes to Gridley, 42 minutes to Marysville- Yuba City, 50 minutes to Plumas Lake, 75 Minutes to Natomas and 90 minutes to Midtown Sacramento.
Once approved by BCAG and other agencies, the next steps are to conduct an environmental review of the project, then proceed with initial designs.
Service is planned to start in 2031, and future plans include expansion to meet hourly service to the north valley by 2050 to meet California State Rail Plan goals.
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