Dublin/Pleasanton (BART Station)

5801 Owens Dr., Pleasanton, CA 94588

Dublin / Pleasanton is a Rapid Transit Station at the Dublin and Pleasanton border with the Bay Area. The Dublin / Pleasanton–Daly City line’s eastern end is a major bus terminal operated by six suppliers. The station is an island platform located in the elevated Interstate 580’s center median. Under the platform is a fare lobby; the station is connected to bus bays, parking lots, a parking garage and surrounding development by a pedestrian and vehicle underpass. The Iron Horse Regional Trail connects to the station’s north and south sides.

History

Station service started on May 10, 1997. In the late 1980s, original plans called for a West Dublin station to be added later, with an East Dublin station near the Hacienda Business Park. However, the decision was reversed by the early 1990s. During the planning to distinguish it from the planned West Dublin / Pleasanton station, the station was known as East Dublin / Pleasanton. Since its inception, it has been known simply as Dublin / Pleasanton. The station features a “wave” design motif, most notably in the titanium canopy roof over the passenger platform, which has a silhouette of five curves intended to both echo the shape of the nearby hills in Dublin and “represent the sound waves generated by BART’s electric propulsion.”

Initial construction was completed in 2006 by an adjacent transit-oriented development on the station’s Dublin side. The development included a 1,513-space BART parking garage that opened on May 23, 2008. According to its architects, the “external design treatments … draw the eye away from the height and size”, but the San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic John King dismissed the result as “cartoonishly clumsy.”

The construction of a second 665-space garage, promised by BART in 2002, proved controversial. A $37.1 million design was brought forward in February 2017; local officials were in favor of the garage – noting that existing parking is full by 7:45am on weekdays – but the BART Board rejected it because of cost concerns and a 2016 BART policy to prioritize non-auto access to stations. Instead, the Board approved a “hybrid” model of $17.2 million that included restricting existing parking, improving bus service and connections to Iron Horse Regional Trail, and installing an automated parking system. Local officials announced plans for a $30 million garage entirely on urban land in May 2018 and not subject to approval from BART. The project will use $20 million in government funding for the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority plus $10 million in local funding. Construction of the garage started in October 2018.