Oakley's Train Station Broke Ground. The Trains Coming With It Are Antioch's.

If you live in Oakley and want to take the train to Oakland, Stockton or Fresno this month, where do you board? You drive to the Antioch–Pittsburg station in Antioch's Rivertown, the only Gold Runner stop in this part of Contra Costa County. That changes in spring 2028, when trains are scheduled to start stopping on Main Street in downtown Oakley.

The October 14 groundbreaking at 3486 Main St. made the new station official. The trains for that station will come from Antioch. The rail authority's own project page says that "with the opening of Oakley Station, Gold Runner trains will transition from Antioch to the new Oakley Station." East County isn't getting a second stop. The Antioch stop is moving to Oakley, and the five daily train pairs that stop there now are the starting point for what Oakley gets.

The five trains Oakley is taking over

Gold Runner is the new name for Amtrak's San Joaquins. Under the Amtrak Gold Runner timetable effective Sunday, November 1, 2026, five trains a day in each direction stop at Antioch–Pittsburg. Westbound, they are trains 711, 713, 715, 717 and 719 toward Oakland. Eastbound, they are trains 710, 712, 714, 716 and 718 toward Bakersfield. The two Sacramento trains in each direction pass through without stopping. On the current schedule, the ride from Antioch–Pittsburg to Oakland takes about 1 hour 20 to 24 minutes.

That is the service Oakley stands to inherit. When the joint powers authority chose the Oakley site, The Press reported that the agency expected 10 daily trains at the new station, five westbound toward Oakland and five eastbound toward Bakersfield. That's the same count Antioch has on today's timetable. The same article cited Amtrak projections that Oakley riders could get from downtown Oakley to downtown Oakland in less than an hour.

The project page lists the route's stops as Oakland, Emeryville, Richmond, Martinez, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield, with a BART transfer at Richmond. Thruway buses extend those trips north to Santa Rosa and the North Coast, and south to Southern California and Las Vegas.

The Antioch–Pittsburg station closes when Oakley opens. The Contra Costa Herald asked Ahdel Ahmed, public relations manager for the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, whether the board might revisit that plan. He said that "technically" it could, but "we're at this point now where the contract will be awarded for construction of the Oakley station." The agency says Antioch residents will still have BART and local transit, and that it supports better transit links between Antioch and the Oakley platform.

What's going up between Second Street and O'Hara Avenue

The station will sit on Main Street between Second Street and O'Hara Avenue, next to the existing railroad tracks and the city's parking facilities. Most of that ground is already built. The City of Oakley paid for the transit center first, including about 240 parking spaces and bus facilities. The rail platform will run right alongside it. When the station site was chosen, The Press quoted Supervisor Diane Burgis saying the city "has invested $6 million and worked nearly a decade" with the rail authority to plan it.

The rail authority's work adds the platform and everything on it:

• A 720-foot, 13-foot-wide cast-in-place concrete platform, long enough for Gold Runner's longest current train (a seven-car Venture set plus locomotive), with room to grow to eight cars
• Three ADA-compliant ramps, a wheelchair-lift enclosure, tactile warning panels and metal safety guardrails
• Six canopy shelters and passenger information display signs
• Underground utility work, drainage, landscaping and LED lighting

The agency's construction plan also includes work on a plaza, a crossing and the track corridor. It describes the job as "urban construction coordination within constrained right-of-way conditions." Expect work crews on Main Street once construction is underway. The rail authority estimates about 12 months of construction.

Getting to the platform without driving

The station sits next to a transit center, so the bus link matters as much as the parking. Leeann Loroño, Tri Delta Transit's manager of customer service and marketing, told the Contra Costa Herald, "We are going to service Amtrak in Oakley with our regular route service, 373 and Tri My Ride." She also said Tri Delta is talking with the rail authority about serving the Antioch Amtrak station.

Route 373 already runs "from Brentwood, through Oakley to the Antioch BART Station," she said. That puts one bus route between the Gold Runner platform and BART. Riders from Brentwood or Oakley could reach either rail system on it, and riders coming from Antioch BART would have a way to the new platform. The rail commission says detailed transit connections and schedules will be released closer to the start of service.

An opening date that has moved four times

The spring 2028 date is the latest in a series of targets. In order, the projected opening dates have been:

1. 2022, the city's projection as reported by The Press
2. Fall 2023, printed on a project fact sheet that also notes environmental clearance in June 2018
3. Third quarter of 2024, the target The Press reported when the Oakley site was chosen
4. Late summer 2027, in the rail authority's March 19, 2026 board update
5. Spring 2028, in the October 12, 2026 groundbreaking announcement, with major construction starting in early 2027

Ahmed told the Contra Costa Herald that "some of the timeline challenges have to do with getting a contractor on board for Oakley." The money has been in place for a long time. The platform and track were part of a 2018 award from California's Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. The rail commission's FY25/26 work plan budgets $7,396,962 for "Oakley Station & Track Improvements" and says design was finished in 2025. By the March 2026 board meeting, 1% of that budget had been spent. Planning and funding are largely done. The construction schedule is what has kept slipping.

The next milestone to watch is crews and equipment showing up beside the Main Street parking lot in early 2027. With a construction period of about a year, that start date is what makes a spring 2028 opening possible.

What the trains bring to Main Street

Oakley's leaders talk about the station as a way to bring people into town as much as a way to get commuters out. "We are also excited about the station and rail service providing another opportunity for economic growth as passengers from outside the region will be able to comfortably travel to attend Oakley events, and eat, drink, and shop right in the downtown," Mayor Hugh Henderson said in the city's announcement, which the Contra Costa Herald published.

Chris Orlando, CEO of the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission and the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, listed trips residents could take from the new platform: "whether they're headed to Oakland, Santa Rosa, Eureka, Sacramento, the San Joaquin Valley, or Southern California." The project page says Santa Rosa and the North Coast are reached by connecting transportation from the station. Sacramento trains don't stop at Antioch–Pittsburg on today's timetable.

For an Oakley household, the practical change in 2028 is the trip to the platform. A train ride to Oakland, Martinez or Fresno will start at a stop on Main Street, served by Route 373, instead of a drive to Rivertown. The schedule itself starts from the five daily pairs that run today. Until then, Antioch–Pittsburg is still the East County stop, and the timetable effective November 1 is the one in use.

Our team at Sold Buy Team keeps track of how projects like Oakley Station affect the blocks around them, from Main Street parking to bus access. If you own a home near downtown Oakley and want to know what it's worth while the station gets built, request your instant home valuation and we'll go over the numbers with you.