Meta’s Plans to Revive an Old Rail Bridge Halted During the Pandemic

Starting in 2017, Facebook explored a rebirth of the Dumbarton Rail Bridge, the portion of the 18-mile Dumbarton Rail Corridor that passes over the San Francisco Bay, connecting Menlo Park and Redwood City on the west side of the bay to Newark and Union City to the east. Between 2017 and 2020, Facebook spent $20 million on plans to revive the corridor. An estimate published in 2020 targeted the corridor for operation in 2028.

The pandemic changed the equation of explosive growth that defined the San Francisco Peninsula in the previous decade, according to an article by Issie Lapowsky for the New York Times. The plan is now defunct, reports Lapowsky: “Facebook’s employees went home. Traffic died out, and the future of offices themselves became uncertain. Before long, Facebook abandoned its plans for the railroad.”

According to the article, however, the project was always unlikely and signs of the pan’s demise were obvious long before the pandemic came to American shores. “But the story of how Facebook nearly catalyzed one of California’s most transformative infrastructure projects in a generation is a case study in how fast-growing tech giants have sought to radically shape the communities where they’re based and how local governments, starved for resources, have hungrily accepted the help.”

The source article, linked below, includes more details about the history of the bridge, it’s failed original intentions to solve traffic by providing an alternative passenger rail corridor across the bay, and the recent hopes by local leaders for the bridge’s revival.