Between the Capital and the Bay

The original landing page for the original website for this project said:

Ready to Rail! 

Solano County is being squeezed between the pressures of The San Francisco Bay Area and The Capitol. 

It is a largely rural county in a highly urbanized region. It is currently underserved by the Amtrak Capitol Corridor route, with only one stop in the entire county and the longest stretch of rail without a stop on the entire route. The county has plans to add three more train stations. However, the existing plan chose three spots based on political criteria, when the cities within Solano along the Capitol Corridor Route got together and decided which city would get a train station. Please note this means that Travis Air Base had no representation at that meeting and the needs of the base were not adequately considered. 

Are you Ready to Rail?

The title of the presentation is Solano County: Between the Capital and SF Bay and there's an ugly map trying to illustrate the concept.

I lived in Fairfield at the time. My memory is that it was roughly 45 miles to either Sacramento or San Francisco and a quick fact check via Internet says:

Distance from Fairfield, California to Sacramento, California:

40 min

42.4 miles

Via 180

Light traffic 

Distance from Fairfield, California to San Francisco, California.

48 min

47.6 miles

Via I-80 

Light traffic

Toll on route

I doubt the time estimate there. My recollection is that 45 miles to Sacramento in a car was 45 minutes, but 45 miles to San Francisco in a car with a toll booth on the route over bridges was at least an hour and fifteen minutes and could take two hours.

Thankfully, I didn't get the job in San Francisco that I applied for.

So I did in fact take the Capitol Corridor route train and then I think they put you on a bus for the last leg to attend a conference in San Francisco because driving to San Francisco from just 45 miles away was an ordeal.

If you think the San Francisco Bay Area doesn't need more commuter rail stops at appropriate points, I think you don't really understand the situation in the area.

Solano County is relatively rural for the San Francisco Bay Area and has too few local jobs, but it's a county that also borders Yolo, which is the county with Davis which is just over the county border. 

Davis has a stop on this rail route and it has a big university with agreements with the community college in Solano County and my recollection is the UC-Davis Medical Center was actually in Sacramento and it's through them that I got speciality care for a medical condition threatening to kill me. So there's no clear, bright line between Davis and Sacramento and the assets they have to offer the region.

The city of Sacramento is actually in Sacramento County, but by car or train, you pass through Davis to get there from Solano County.