Haven't been in the Altamont lately, eh? The ex-WP 1st Subdivsion between Stockton and Niles Jct is a busy piece of railroad. Currently the ex-WP line via the Altamont is seeing an average of 14 UP freight trains every 24 hours. This doesn't include the 8 weekday ACE commuter trains. There are many short and long-term reasons why freight traffic is getting so heavy that my former employers at ACE are seriously planning an estimated $400 million project to purchase and rebuild the ex-SP Tracy Subdivision and Altamont/Niles Canyon line for their commuter trains and proposed network of short-distance double-stack trains. They have already set aside around $25 million to puchase a dedicated right-of-way along side the ex-SP Fresno Sub main from Stockton to Lathrop so they can lay their own dedicated passenger mainline. It is really changed from 1999 when we were lucky to see 1 or 2 UP trains over the Altamont every 24 hours - which is what the ACE management still remembers and remains greatly upset why the UP will not go back to forcing all of the Bay Area freight traffic back onto Capitol Corridor's ex-SP Cal-P mainline.
The big increase in freight traffic really jumped in August when the Capitol Corridor increased the number of passenger trains on the ex-SP Cal-P main up to 24 per day. Like squeezing on one side of a balloon, this forced some of the UP Coast Route trains like the QRVML and QRVDO back onto the Altamont route where they were 2 years ago. When the UP reopened Stockton Yard 2 years ago as a major destination for traffic to bypass Roseville, the UP began to run daily LRS90/LRS90B Stockton to Oakland locals and LRS92 Stockton to Warm Springs locals. With the intermodal growth at the Port of Oakland growing around 10% per year, the UP is trying to keep that traffic fluid by designating Oakland only for international container traffic and the "inland port" of the Lathrop Intermodal facility for all inbound and outbound domestic container traffic. Thus a majority (but not all) of the daily IG2OA/IOAG2 and KMNOA/KOAMN stack trains must run via Lathrop to set-out/pick up the domestic container traffic before going to/coming from Port of Oakland via Altamont Pass. When you see UP stack trains on the Cal-P, that means that the westbound domestic traffic for Lathrop was set out to make a new train in SLC, Elko or Portola or there is enough traffic to orignate an eastbound stack train at Lathrop. The 2 1/2 miles of old SP mainline at Radum/East Pleasanton Yard is a favorite place to park an inbound stack train until the Port of Oakland can take it or for parking empty bare-tables until needed elsewhere. During the past month with the big tie replacement and bridge repair project on the Cal-P between Martinez and Richmond severely limiting freight traffic between Capitol Corridor passenger trains, even more UP trains are using the Altamont instead of the Cal-P line. The "new" daily MRVNW/MNWRV (Roseville-Newark Yard) trains that took the place of the MRVSJ/MSJRV trains are using the ex-WP line. There are even auto trains once again using the ex-WP over Altamont, as some of the loaded and empty auto trains in and out of Warm Springs(NUMMI)/Milpitas are going that way to minimize delays they would otherwise incur running on the very congested Cal-P. And don't forget the tri-weekly Livermore Local out of Warm Springs and the tri-weekly Tracy Local based in Tracy that runs down the CalNorthern from Tracy to Lyoth then works east to Cochran and west to Ayala (the ACE Tracy station).
The hills of the Altamont are getting green again, the wildflowers will start blooming soon and there is now a mid-day ACE train. Time to go spend some time there...