The San Francisco 49ers will begin play in Levi's Stadium in August when they host their two preseason games. This follows the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders opening the stadium August 2 with an MLS match. While the stadium will be ready for these three events, the real opening will likely be Week 2 Sunday Night Football.
The "soft opening" of those three events will give the 49ers and Santa Clara an opportunity to assess their transportation planning. I bring it up today because we're seeing some movement on that front.
Last night crews began working on new $13.7M @VTA track outside #49ers Levi's Stadium. Will allow for more game-time trains by opening day.
— Mike Rosenberg (@RosenbergMerc) February 14, 2014
This work comes a few days after the VTA issued a press release discussing their plans for getting people to and from the stadium on public transportation. There will be a lot of people driving down to Santa Clara, but public transportation will be utilized by a sizable chunk of the paying public.
As it currently stands, the best public transportation options for getting to Levi's Stadium include Caltrain, BART, the VTA and buses:
1. Take Caltrain from San Francisco (or wherever along the way), get off at Mountain View, take the Santa Clara VTA to the Great America station.
2. Take BART to Fremont station, get on express bus from Fremont to the stadium (16 mile trip).
3. If you're coming from parts of the Central Valley, ACE will drop off at Great America, right near the stadium. The ACE train appears to start in Stockton, and run through Lathrop/Manteca, Tracy, Vasco, Livermore, Pleasanton and Fremont, before ending up at Great America.
4. The Capitol Corridor train also has a Great America stop. It starts in Auburn, goes through Sacramento, and continues all the way down.
As that tweet above points, VTA has begun the process of expanding the Great America station. The station apparently will also include a passenger walkway to help people get to ACE and Capitol Corridor trains. And of course there will be all sorts of park and ride lots set up at the various VTA stations.
At one point, there was discussion about BART coming down to the South Bay. It sounds like construction is underway, with plans for BART to open down in Milpitas and San Jose in 2018. That's over four years away, but at least there is progress.