Reimagine Dumbarton is a vision to transform a former freight rail line into a busway and trail for walking and bicycling spanning 5 miles between Redwood City and East Palo Alto on the Peninsula. Reimagine Dumbarton will identify opportunities to use the Dumbarton Corridor to provide access to community destinations, local and regional job centers, and the regional transportation network. The Reimagine Dumbarton study area includes the Dumbarton Corridor between University Avenue in East Palo Alto and Redwood City Transit Center. The feasibility study will determine how to best use the Corridor to create new bus, walking, and biking connections.

The Dumbarton Corridor is currently unused for transportation and is a barrier between communities.

This project offers a unique opportunity to reconnect communities. Since 2020, the number of trips on an average day between Redwood City and East Palo Alto has increased by more than 30%. These local trips, coupled with increases in regional traffic, result in congestion along roadways such as State Route 84.

A high-quality bus service responds to the community’s travel patterns and can be delivered more quickly and at lower cost than rail projects, while still providing fast and reliable travel. Busway projects are flexible as travel needs change and have been successful in attracting riders in many other regions.

The goals of Reimagine Dumbarton are to:

• Improve connections between neighborhoods along the corridor
• Add new pedestrian and bicycle crossings
• Enhance speed and regional bus and Caltrain connections
• Support environmental sustainability
• Connect people to jobs and economic opportunity
• Preserve flexibility for future corridor use

SamTrans operates public bus service in San Mateo County and owns the rail right-of-way and is leading the study to assess how reusing it can benefit communities along the Dumbarton Corridor. 

The Dumbarton Corridor has been studied multiple times, mostly focused on regional transportation solutions. This Study is focused on opportunities to provide new bus, pedestrian, and bicycle connections in the near-term, and is focused on San Mateo County only, west of University Avenue to Redwood City Transit Center. Building off community input received during previous studies, Reimagine Dumbarton focuses on creating safer, faster, and more sustainable connections in the near-term, without a new Bay crossing, to meet the needs of communities in southeast San Mateo County and regional travelers alike.

Bus service on the Dumbarton Corridor would include stations within Peninsula communities and will be operated with quieter and more sustainable zero emission vehicles, reducing noise and greenhouse gas emissions. While this study focuses on near-term bus, pedestrian, and bicycle improvements, it does not prevent train service from being explored along the Dumbarton Corridor in the future.

Reimagine Dumbarton is a multi-phase project. The current phase is a feasibility study, anticipated to be completed in early 2027.

Reimagine Dumbarton will include extensive study of the potential to incorporate multimodal connections both along and across the Corridor to enhance mobility for as many users as possible and reconnect communities currently separated by the Corridor. This project will seek to incorporate active transportation connections and crossings, when possible.

SamTrans will combine both technical analysis and community input to select a preferred alternative. Technical analysis will include review of existing mobility activity, ridership projections, existing and planned land use, and projected transit travel time savings. Community input will be used to identify current transportation needs, refine the draft alternatives, and understand community priorities.

Community feedback received during Phase I of community engagement directly informed the alternatives being presented during this round of engagement. During Phase I of community engagement, more than 1,000 community members throughout the corridor participated and shared their travel patterns, transportation challenges, and priorities for improving the Dumbarton Corridor. The project team used this input, together with technical analysis, to develop alternatives that respond to the community's highest priorities while balancing engineering, operational, environmental, and cost considerations.

For example, the alternatives presented during Phase II:

• Improve regional transit connections by evaluating multiple ways to connect to Redwood City Transit Center and Caltrain, while providing convenient connections to regional bus services, including Dumbarton Express.
• Provide faster, more reliable transit through a dedicated busway that supports more direct service, increased frequency, and fewer transfers.
• Expand opportunities for walking and bicycling by including a shared-use trail, new pedestrian and bicycle crossings, and improved access to destinations along the corridor.
• Improve access to community destinations by positioning bus stations near neighborhoods, parks, community facilities, and regional transit, with shelters, lighting, and other rider amenities.
• Enhance the corridor as a community space by incorporating opportunities for public gathering and recreation spaces as well as landscaping, where feasible. All include privacy treatments such as landscaping, lighting to enhance safety.

All project alternatives preserve the ability to convert the corridor to passenger rail in the future. 

There are two possible designs for the new walking and biking trail – a multi-use/combined walking and biking trail or separate trails for people walking and biking. Both options would be paved and run parallel to the busway. 

Reimagine Dumbarton is a multi-phase project. The current phase is a feasibility study, anticipated to be completed in spring 2027. After the feasibility study is complete, environmental studies and preliminary engineering take place, followed by final design. Pending funding availability, construction would start after 2031. 

Should the SamTrans Board of Directors adopt a preferred alternative at the end of the Reimagine Dumbarton feasibility, the preferred alternative would then advance into environmental clearance, preliminary engineering/design, and eventually final engineering, design and permitting, followed by construction. SamTrans has secured funding for the environmental clearance and preliminary engineering phases and should the feasibility study result in a preferred alternative, will move swiftly into this phase of work.

In 2018, SamTrans kicked off a process with Cross Bay Transit Partners, LLC (Facebook and Plenary Americas) to evaluate the technical and financial feasibility of a transit project along the Dumbarton rail bridge, connecting the Caltrain corridor at Redwood City to the East Bay. In Spring 2020, the project was put on hold due to the global pandemic. Facebook and SamTrans compiled and documented pre-environmental work of the alignment and technology options under consideration for the DRC Project.

This effort followed the completion of the 2017 Dumbarton Transportation Corridor Study, a feasibility study that evaluated potential multimodal transportation improvements within the Dumbarton Corridor and found high ridership potential for bus-based alternatives on the corridor.