Oakland, CA
Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: Berkeley, CA (4.6 mi).
About Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat of and the most populous city in Alameda County, California, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the most populous city in the East Bay, the third most populous city in the Bay Area, and the eighth most populous city in California.
Source: Wikipedia summary (full article). Population and facts as published there.
Cost breakdown (proposal-scale estimates — see math)
| Item | Basis | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal construction | Large-city terminal ($2–4B range) | $3.0B |
| Land acquisition | Regional factor 1.5× on $200M base | $300M |
| Track: Oakland → Berkeley | 4.6 mi × $500M/mi | $2.3B |
| Annual operations (share) | 2% of $3.0B terminal | $60M/yr |
| Stop total (excl. annual ops) | $5.6B |
Best terminal location (proposed)
The West Oakland BART station district. West Oakland BART is the East Bay's busiest transfer point — every BART line funnels through it. The surrounding industrial and port-adjacent parcels are among the last large buildable sites near the Bay. It captures the East Bay's 2.8 million residents without requiring a new Transbay tube, and sits minutes from the Port of Oakland's logistics jobs.
Before / after
Aerial mock-up (illustrative, not an engineering rendering). Left: the proposed site today. Right: with the maglev terminal.
- Emeryville — small city at the Bay Bridge approach with the existing Amtrak station.
- West Berkeley — industrial and arts district on the corridor.
- Ashby district — South Berkeley neighborhood at the Ashby BART station.