Currently, the plan is to arrive in Sacramento around 7:40 am so people can get to work at 8:00 am, thus necessitating leaving Fresno at around 4:30. In addition to breaking the Sacramento transfer to the midnight Coast Starlight (passengers would take the earlier Oakland train and transfer at Martinez), the final train (718) out of Oakland would terminate at Fresno, with the only bus to Southern California connecting to it there instead at Bakersfield. This would use the mid corridor layover location. SJJPA is also proposing a Bay Area mid-corridor express in 2019, which again would take a Bakersfield train and end it in Fresno. So with the proposed eight trains, you now have 6 going to Bakersfield and 2 ending in Fresno, at least for the time being. The third train will go to Sacramento but UP wants it to use the Sacramento subdivision instead of the current Fresno Sub, which means a different station in Sacramento at Midtown, but also allows a direct shot to continue to Marysville and points north.
The mid-corridor express would receive a bus from Los Angeles leaving around midnight, which provides another overnight alternative from Los Angeles to Sacramento, albeit with a mid-bus rousting at Fresno instead of transferring at Bakersfield.
The representative from Kern County at today's SJVRC meeting recommended running a Thruway bus from Madera to San Jose via the 152 corridor, which would save time over transferring at Stockton. On the other hand, he tried to sell it as a faster way for people to go from the Los Angeles basin to San Jose and the Bay Area, which I doubt with the two, maybe three transfers. As the discount bus operators have proliferated, the population doing Bay Area-LA trips has really declined from my experience. The primary market for the San Joaquins are intra-Valley travel or travel from the Valley to the Los Angeles basin or the Bay Area. The Bay Area-LA ground trips are predominantly made on the scenic route with the Starlight or Surfliner, or made quickly on Mega, Bolt, Xe Do Hoang, Greyhound, or one of the other Chinese carriers. While there are some people who take the San Joaquins to ride a train, from looking at the seat checks, most people are either alighting or boarding in the Central Valley. Also, although the San Joaquins have better distribution in the LA area with the Ventura/SFV, Westside/South Bay bus and SGV/Inland Empire bus, at least on the SGV/IE bus the ridership has been pretty poor for some time.
