Facebook Has $1B Plan to Restore Dumbarton Rail Bridge For Commuter Trains

Facebook is hatching a billion-dollar plan to help rebuild and rejuvenate the Dumbarton Rail Bridge as a means for easing traffic woes in the region.

During a Thursday night meeting in Fremont, the public had a chance to hear the beginning of discussions about a potential commuter train line spanning San Francisco Bay from Newark in the East Bay to Menlo Park on the Peninsula.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $2 billion, and Menlo Park-based Facebook apparently is prepared to put up $1 billion of that.

The project as presented Thursday aims to break ground in 2022, a timeline that had some skeptical and yet hopeful.

"I have a lot more respect for Facebook getting things done than I do the local government," Fremont resident Tim Pitsker said. "I mean if Facebook is really behind it and pushing it, then yeah, it will get done. Otherwise we could be going for another 10 or 15 years."

It's been nearly 40 years since the rail bridge was last used, and that was strictly by freight trains.

Traffic along Highway 84 over the Dumbarton Bridge currently amounts to about 80,000 cars a day.