How to Commuting by ACE Train From Fremont, CA to San Jose, CA

Believe it or not, there is a way to avoid the rush hour freeway commute by car when you are looking to get from Fremont, California to any of the Silicon Valley companies located at Great America Parkway or San Jose, California. Taking the Altamont Commute Express (or ACE) train allows you to avoid commuting by car. The ACE train is a commute service train in the Bay Area in Northern California that runs from Stockton to San Jose. This article shares instructions regarding the schedules and train fare for getting to and from Great America Parkway or San Jose from the Fremont ACE train station.

The ACE Train service began service on Oct 19, 1998 and now runs four commuter service trains, which today includes a mid-day train service running Monday through Friday from Stockton to San Jose in the mornings and running from San Jose to Stockton in the evenings. The trains do not run on seven major holidays: Memorial Day, Independance Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Day After Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.

These trains help employees of the Southern Bay Area companies such as SONY, Mitsubhishi, SONY, National Semiconductors, Applied Materials, Cadence, INTEL, Quantum, Cisco, and others to arrive at their work by train, thus avoiding the rush hour freeway commute.

So you can use these ACE trains and get to your companies by first taking any of the morning ACE trains at the Fremont ACE train station. These ACE trains take you straight to the Great America Parkway station. From there you can take the connecting shuttle services at the Great America Parkway train station and thus reach your company within half an hour.

In addition to Fremont, you can use also get onto these same morning or evening trains to travel from and to Stockton, Lathrop/Manteca, Tracy, Vasco, Liermore, and Pleasanton if you get to the ACE train stations in those ciites.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Travelling by the ACE Train from Fremont, CA to Greate America Parkway or San Jose

1. Get to the Fremont-Centerville ACE train station at the address here:
   
   Fremont-Centerville ACE Train Station
   37260 Fremont Blvd
   Fremont, CA 94536-3643 USA
   
   Most passengers arrive either by walking, car, car pool, or AC buses. There is no car parking facility available at this station as it is located at the center of the Fremont city next to a crowded and busy Fremont Blvd. road. But you can ride the AC transit buses 219 and 239 to reach this ACE train station.

2. Purchase a ticket at the Fremont ACE train station or online (see link below). Tickets are NOT sold on the train. The cost of a round trip fare from Fremont to Great America Parkway is $8.50.
   
   If your station of origin is any of the other ACE train stations, please make a note of the following:
   
   Effective October 4, 2006, ACE tickets are no longer be sold at the Vasco Road ACE Station. Passengers may purchase their tickets at the Wheels/ACE Livermore Station or at the line stations further down such as Pleasanton, Fremont, Great America or San Jose.
   
   ACE Tickets are sold on board ACE trains #07 and #02 only when no ticket vendor is available.
   
   Tickets at San Jose may be purchased from the Passenger Service Representative in the station prior to the departure of ACE Trains #04 and #06.

3. Get onto any of the three morning ACE Rail trains at Fremont. All these trains go straight to Santa Clara and continue on to San Jose. These morning trains arrive at Fremont at the following times:
   
   5:57 AM -- Train # 01
   7:12 AM -- Train # 03
   8:17 AM -- Train # 05
   1:07 AM -- Train # 07
   
   The first three morning trains do run on schedule. Check the schedules online if you wish to know when these morning trains arrive at any other ACE train station in the mornings. As for the 11:07 am midday train, double check with the ACE train authorities, if this particular mid-day train stops at the Fremont ACE train station at 11:07 am.

4. The morning ACE trains travel nonstop and arrive at Great America Parkway at the following times:
   
   6:16 AM -- Train # 01
   7:31 AM -- Train # 03
   8:36 AM -- Train # 05
   11:26 AM -- Train # 07
   
   These trains stop at the Great America train station over the Tasman Driver overpass. From that station, there are a number of shuttles taking you to all the Silicon Valley companies. The Great America ACE Train staion is located at 5099 Stars and Stripes, Santa Clara, CA 95054.
   
   

5. The trains #01, #03, and #07 may leave the Great America Parkway station ahead of schedule after dropping off passengers. Then, these trains continue on to San Jose, their last stop. These same morning ACE trains generally arrive at San Jose at the following times:
   
   6:30 AM -- Train # 01
   7:50 AM -- Train # 03
   8:50 AM -- Train # 05
   11:40 AM -- Train # 07

6. To get to any of the companies where you work from the Great America Parkway ACE train station, take any of these ACE shuttles.:
   
   ACE Gray Line South Sunnyvale (822)
   ACE Green Line North Santa Clara (823)
   ACE Orange Line Mountain View (824)
   ACE Purple Line Milpitas (825)
   ACE REd Line North Sunnyvale (826)
   ACE Yellow Line South Santa Clara (827)
   ACE Brown Line Santa Clara (828)
   ACE Violet Line East Milpitas (831)

7. For more details, get online (see link below) and find, "ACE Shuttle and Light Rail Route Map." This contains a map informing passengers as to what companies are covered by each of these shuttles. These shuttles provide free service to ACE train passengers.

Traveling Back by the ACE Train From San Jose or Great America Parkway to Fremont

8. To return back to the Great America Parkway Station in the evening, please take any of the ACE Shuttles from your company back the the Great America Parkway Train station. Check out the shuttle schedules online (see link below) for the most current times. These shuttles generally run from 3:00 PM to 5:35 PM, bringing employees from the company to the Great America Parkway ACE train station (or the San Jose ACE train station).

9. To return back by train to Fremont from San Jose or Great America Parkway stations, take any of these westbound PM ACE trains (Trains #2, #4, #6, or #8).
   
   From the San Jose ACE Train Station:
   
   12:05 PM -- Train # 02
   3:35 PM -- Train # 04
   4:35 PM -- Train # 06
   5:35 PM -- Train # 08
   
   From the Great America Parkway ACE Train Station:
   
   12:16 PM -- Train # 02
   3:46 PM -- Train # 04
   4:46 PM -- Train # 06
   5:46 PM -- Train # 08
   
   
   The trains arrive at Fremont ACE train station at these times:
   
   12:34 PM -- Train # 02
   4:04 PM -- Train # 04
   5:04 PM -- Train # 06
   6:04 PM -- Train # 08

Tips & Warnings

• If you become a regular ACE train commuter, you can enroll in ACE Phone Alert system that will alert you if there are any major train service disruptions due to train derailments, fires, earthquakes, and so on. You can sign up for one or both is these systems by sending an email to: call [e-mail]. There are two phone lists: The AM list covers trains from 4:00am to 12:00 noon, while the PM phone list covers trains from 12:00 noon to 9:00pm.
• For rare and unexpected emergencies, such as if your child gets sick and needs to be picked up at school, the ACE train even has a Ride Home Emergency Program. Just contact 1-800-411-RAIL and get more details on the Emergency Ride Home Program. Eligible passengers will be provided an emergency ride from their destination station back to their station of origin. For more information, check out the Web Site (see link below).

[djd22]

on 5/30/2007 DO you have any information on commuting by train from Pleasanton to Mountain View (CA)?