A person was struck and killed by an Altamont Corridor Express train Wednesday afternoon on Union Pacific tracks between Santa Clara and Fremont, officials said. The collision happened around 4:55 p.m. along a stretch of track heavily used by Amtrak and Union Pacific freight trains, and it left two ACE trains delayed as the investigation unfolded.
The train involved was carrying 519 passengers at the time of the strike, according to a rail commission spokesperson cited by The Mercury News. ACE 06 and ACE 08 both experienced delays as a result of the incident, the spokesperson said. As of Wednesday night, no further details about the person killed or the circumstances of the strike had been released.
The corridor where the collision occurred is owned by Union Pacific Railroad. The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority’s draft EIR says a proposed South Bay Connect project would relocate Capitol Corridor service from the Niles Subdivision to the Coast Subdivision. Across the Bay Area, commuter rail agencies often run passenger service on freight-owned lines rather than dedicated track.
A Recurring Hazard Along South Bay Rail Lines
This is not the first fatal pedestrian strike on this stretch of track. In November 2019, an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train struck and killed a child on Union Pacific tracks in Santa Clara, an incident that caused multi-hour delays for both Amtrak and eastbound ACE trains, as reported by SFGATE at the time. Track closures along Union Pacific’s South Bay corridor routinely ripple across multiple transit operators sharing the same rails…