Dozens of people gathered at the Antioch-Pittsburg Amtrak station Saturday to protest its planned closure.
"The train is a big deal for me and my family. We like to take the train just to go up to Sacramento, sometimes to Fresno," said Antioch resident Monique McCoy, who read a poem at the rally on Saturday. "The message is just, put yourself in our shoes. If you couldn't get to work and take the train to work, maybe to Sacramento or the surrounding area, how would that affect you and your family?"
Many people at the rally Sunday live in Antioch, but some attendees took the train to Antioch from Richmond and Oakland to attend. After the rally, they all joined in on a walking tour of nearby destinations around Antioch. Residents toured the El Campanil Theater and the Royal Banquet and Event Hall.
Attendees told NBC Bay Area they use the train to go to work, to get to doctor appointments, and even to see their family members.
"The train has been very, very strategically important, especially since I've had an injury, and I can't sit too long in the car, so on the train, you can get up, walk around, get something to eat," said Contra Costa County resident Eddie Gums who often rides the train to attend public meetings.
The Antioch-Pittsburg train stop is located on I Street, right on the waterfront. The San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority governs it.
In May, SJJPA told NBC Bay Area that passengers were having challenges with the train's service in Antioch, including unhoused residents staying at the stop. There used to be a station shelter at the train stop, but SJJPA said it removed it at the City of Antioch's request.
"The issues progressed to routinely requiring the service to only open a single door, due to routine fare evasion," SJJPA said in May.
The statement continued, "With the Antioch and new Oakley station sites only 6 miles apart, BNSF determined that keeping both stations was not feasible from a schedule or railroad optimization standpoint."
SJJPA did not immediately respond to NBC Bay Area's request for comment on Saturday.
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Neighbors and East Bay community members have continued to protest this planned closure.
Antioch's Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe joined the group for the walking tour on Saturday. Hernandez-Thorpe said he has been speaking with SJJPA about plans to keep the stop open.
"There will be more conversations we'll have to have as we'll hammer out the details in terms of what's going to be needed to keep the train station open, but I feel confident that we are gonna keep the train station open and that we're on the right path so that it doesn't go away," he said.
Hernandez-Thorpe said the plans will be discussed at the SJJPA board meeting on September 20.
Tachina Garrett, the chairwoman for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Antioch said she is glad to hear the mayor is working on a deal, but she is distrustful of the SJJPA.
"We'll believe it when we see it, but until then, don't drop our stop," Garrett said.
Garrett added that she and other organizers plan to take the train to the SJJPA meeting on September 20 to let the board hear community voices.
"Antioch is a beautiful destination, folks from throughout the Bay Area and from Stockton go to Antioch," noted Carter Lavin with the Oakland Transbay Coalition.
Lavin also attended the rally and walking tour on Saturday.
According to the 2024 SJJPA Business Plan Update, 29,942 people used the Antioch train stop in the 2023 Fiscal Year, which is a higher ridership number than six other stops on the route.
"We're in this era where climate change is worse than ever, emissions from cars are worse than ever, and we need as much emissions-free transportation as we can and low-emission transportation as we can, and train service is a great way to do it," Lavin said.
