Traffic on weekends heading to and from Bay Area destinations can be almost as horrific as the daily commute.
It is against that backdrop that the Altamont Corridor Express is conducting a survey to gauge the ridership interest in weekend service from the Stockton, Lathrop/Manteca, Tracy, Livermore and Pleasanton stations to the Union City Bay Area Rapid Transit station. The Union City BART station has direct access to Downtown Oakland, and San Francisco International Airport.
The survey asks a variety of questions including what cities, locations or points of interest or final destination if you took weekend service would be as well as how frequently you might use the service. It also asks ideal boarding times to head toward Union City and the ideal time to board in Union City for the return trip home.
If such service is instituted there would be an AC Transit bus connection at the Fremont ACE station to the Union City ACE station that takes 16 minutes.
The ACE Forward project now in the environmental review stages would provide a direct train-to-train connection from the Centerville (Fremont) station to Union City.
You can contact ACE via their acerail.com website.

SJ County is state
leader for lima beans,
pumpkins, asparagus
watermelons & more
San Joaquin County is the seventh most productive county in California when it comes to agriculture. As a standalone state in terms of crop production, California would come in at 35th.
In 2016 the county generated crops valued at $2.3 billion.
The county is California’s largest producer of lima beans (96%), pumpkins (78%), asparagus (51%), watermelons (34%), corn (32%), apples (31%), English walnuts (21%), and cherries.
It’s the No. 2 county in terms of top producers for chicken eggs (43%), potatoes (34%), dry beans (31%), cucumbers (28%), and silage (13%).
San Joaquin County ranks as the third top county in the state for vegetable nursery plants (21%), blueberries (18%), wine grapes (13%), safflower (11%), and processing tomatoes (10.5%).
Of the overall farm production, bee pollination makes roughly a quarter or $568 million worth of crops possible. In 2016, there were 220,000 hives spread over 103,000 acres in the county pollinating at least nine crops including almonds.
Some tidbits the San Joaquin County Agricultural Commissioner Office offered about bees in the department’s 2016 county crop report include:
uBees must go to 2 million flowers to gather enough nectar to produce one pound of honey.
uHoneybees fly upwards of 55,000 miles to produce one pound of honey.
uA queen bee can live from four to seven years.
uAll worker bees are female and only live 45 days.
uHoneybees may forage up to five miles from the hive.
uHoneybees are responsible for pollinating about 80 percent of all fruit, vegetable, and seed crops.
uThe top four honey producing states are North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and California.
Based on a 2012 census, the county has 787,015 acres of farm land with 517,918 acres in crop production. of that, 485,402 acres are irrigated.
There are 3,520 farms with an average size of 220 acres. The monthly average of people working in agricultural endeavors in San Joaquin County is 23,037 making it by far the biggest source of employment.
To toss in the fact mix, the county is 75 miles from north to south and 65 miles wide. The lowest spot is in the Delta portion of the county is 12 feet below sea level while the highest peak straddles the San Joaquin/Alameda county line to the southwest. It’s Mount Boardman that’s part of the Diablo Range at 3,629 feet.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com