Shovels hit dirt this week at the future Oakley station site as city and rail officials broke ground on a new at-grade station that will bring Gold Runner intercity trains to Oakley and East Contra Costa County. Construction on the 720-foot platform is set to begin this winter or early next year, with train service targeted to launch by spring 2028.
The ceremony, held at the future station site, marked a milestone nearly a decade in the making for the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, and the City of Oakley, according to the City of Oakley. Once finished, the station will connect East Contra Costa County communities to destinations across Northern California, the Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California via Gold Runner rail and Thruway bus service. As Contra Costa News reports, the platform will stretch 720 feet long and 13 feet wide, outfitted with canopy shelters, lighting and ADA-compliant accessibility features built to handle seven-car Siemens Venture trainsets, with room to grow for future eight-car service.
State Money and a City-Built Transit Plaza
The platform project has state transportation funding. In March 2025, the California Transportation Commission allocated $7.598 million to the City of Oakley for the Valley Rail Oakley Station platform project, according to Caltrans.
Oakley is pairing that state investment with its own infrastructure push. The city is building a station parking lot, per the City of Oakley. Tri Delta Transit is an important connection to the station.
Closing the Book on a Troubled Antioch Stop
The new station doesn't just add service — it replaces it. The Oakley stop will take over for the nearby Antioch-Pittsburg station, located six miles away, which the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority voted to decommission back in March 2023 amid long-standing concerns over safety, homelessness, fare evasion and vandalism, as reported by SFGATE. The Antioch stop will close once Oakley becomes operational.
That decommissioning decision wasn't without controversy. It generated friction in Antioch over concerns about transit accessibility for lower-income riders, a tension that has shadowed the station relocation strategy for years, per the same SFGATE account.
A New Name for an Old Line
Riders boarding at the future Oakley platform won't be stepping onto a train called the San Joaquins. On November 3, 2025, the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority officially rebranded the long-running Amtrak San Joaquins intercity rail and bus system to Gold Runner, according to American-Rails.com. The rebrand gives the agency's combined train and Thruway bus network a distinct identity as it pushes into this new phase of construction.
The Oakley station fits into a much larger build-out. It's part of the multi-agency Valley Rail program, a joint initiative by the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission and San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority to expand passenger rail across Northern California and the Central Valley, connecting ACE and Gold Runner lines into a more unified regional network. The new platform will meet BNSF and Amtrak clearance standards.
Why Oakley, Why Now
The Oakley station will add a rail connection for East Contra Costa County residents.
For now, East County commuters will have to wait out the winter construction season and the following year before trains start rolling through Oakley.
