49ers fans, expect a time-sucking slog to Levi's Stadium

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Getting to and from a 49ers game at Candlestick Park was never easy or enjoyable, though nostalgia or sitting in a South Bay traffic jam this year could make it seem so. By car or by public transportation, visiting the Stick took planning, perseverance, patience and a little luck.

Commuting to a game at the snazzy new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara will require all of the above - plus endurance.

Even if everything goes smoothly - and that seems unlikely - it will be a time-sucking trek for many 49ers fans, whether they're driving or riding mass transit. Fans in the 49ers' official home city - that's still San Francisco - should expect it to take an extra hour or two or, maybe more, to get to the new stadium.

Most of the 70,000 fans and 4,000 game-day employees bound for the Field of Jeans will get there by car, van, truck or RV. And the duration of their journeys is difficult to predict.

"This is another first, the first time our 49er fans are coming," said Jim Mercurio, the team's vice president of stadium operations. "We don't know where they're coming from or how they're coming."

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According to 511.org, the Bay Area's traffic information system, a typical Sunday morning drive from San Francisco to Santa Clara on Highways 101 and 237 takes 37 minutes. A typical drive from Oakland down Interstate 880 to 237 and the Great America exit is only slightly longer at 40 minutes.

Of course, until now, a typical Sunday hasn't included an NFL game in the South Bay.

Game-day traffic is not likely to be as sluggish as on a weekday morning, when travel times average around an hour but can be far longer, so it's reasonable to expect traffic will slow as drivers near Santa Clara. How much is anybody's guess.

And it could become a crawl once drivers pull off the freeways and hit Santa Clara streets, which have not been expanded to accommodate stadium traffic. Santa Clara traffic engineers, working with the 49ers and consultants, have developed an elaborate transportation plan using existing city streets and a network of 21 parking lots scattered around the stadium, some as far as three-quarters of a mile away.

Tangled streets

But as soccer fans discovered Aug. 2, when the San Jose Earthquakes took on the Seattle Sounders in the stadium's first sporting event, traffic doesn't always follow plans. Streets were tangled with vehicles, especially after the game, with some drivers reporting agonizing trips of an hour to get to the freeway on-ramps that are a mile or less away.

Transit riders didn't fare much better. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's Great America light-rail station was overwhelmed, with some people waiting an hour for a train and trains moving slowly because of crowds.

Fans taking transit to the stadium have choices, depending on from where they're departing and how they prefer to travel. From San Francisco or the Peninsula, fans can take Caltrain to Mountain View, where they'll stroll across the tracks to the VTA light-rail system, which drops passengers off about a five-minute walk from Intel Gate A.

Caltrain will run two extra trains before the game - departing San Francisco from the station at Fourth and King streets - at 9:35 a.m. and 9:55 a.m. The trip is scheduled to take 1 hour and 14 minutes. The light-rail ride to the stadium takes an additional 25 minutes or so. Postgame trains will leave 45 minutes and an hour after the game or when full. Caltrain operates regularly scheduled trains through about 9 p.m. Sundays.

From the East Bay, or maybe even San Francisco, the best bet may be BART. VTA express buses will take fans from the end-of-the-line Fremont Station to the stadium every 20 minutes from 9:26 a.m. until 12:26 p.m. Bus departures are coordinated with BART arrival times, said VTA spokeswoman Colleen Valles, and multiple buses will be available for each train. BART isn't planning to run extra or longer trains for Sunday's first NFL game at the stadium, but will monitor the situation and adjust service if needed during the season, said spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

The BART ride from downtown Oakland to Fremont takes 36 minutes. The VTA express bus will take an additional 30 minutes or so. Buses back to BART will depart until an hour after the game.

Riders from the East Bay and beyond - to the Sierra foothills and the San Joaquin Valley - can ride in comparative comfort aboard Amtrak California's Capitol Corridor trains or a special game-day Altamont Corridor Express - ACE - train. Both of the trains stop at the Santa Clara/Great America station about five minutes from the stadium's Toyota Gate F.

The Capitol Corridor, which has a car selling food and beverages, runs relatively infrequently between Auburn (Placer County) and San Jose. In the Bay Area, it stops in Fairfield/Suisun City, Martinez, Richmond, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland (Jack London Square), the O.Co Coliseum, Hayward and Fremont/Centerville. The trip from Martinez to Santa Clara is scheduled to take 1 hour and 46 minutes.

ACE trains

ACE, which runs commuter trains from Stockton, will run a game train departing Stockton at 9:50 a.m. It stops in the Bay Area at Vasco Road in eastern Alameda County, Livermore, Pleasanton and Fremont en route to Levi's Stadium. From Pleasanton, the train ride is scheduled to take 40 minutes. The train departs the Great America station at 5:31 p.m. even if overtime or TV timeouts extend the game.

VTA will also provide service on five other express bus lines as well as the rest of its light-rail system. Authority officials say they've beefed up capacity, have completed a "pocket track" near the stadium that will allow them to store three extra trains for postgame service, and will have staff to direct people on and off trains at the Great America station.

"We're hoping this will be a smoother ride both in and out of the stadium," Valles said. "We're trying to make sure it's a comfortable ride, a dependable ride. A (postgame) wait is inevitable, but we don't want it to be too long."

Mercurio, the 49ers vice president, said the team, which handles traffic control and parking, has tweaked its plans and expects a big improvement over the Earthquakes game earlier this month. The Great America amusement park, which was open during the soccer match, will be closed, and the 49ers will use that parking lot.

But fans will have to get used to pulling into spaces as directed by attendants as opposed to parking wherever they want to, like at the Stick.

"Some people call it Disneyland-style parking," he said. "Not everyone is going to love it, but it's necessary, and they'll have to get used to it."

Completion of the VTA pocket tracks on Tasman Road, which limited access to parking lots, should help improve traffic, Mercurio said, as will opening up a lane of traffic that was inadvertently blocked for the soccer game. Other minor traffic changes, including alterations to the timing of traffic signals, have been made at the suggestion of Santa Clara police and traffic engineers.

"We think the adjustments should help," Mercurio said, "but I'm not going to be comfortable until we've got two or three games under our belts."

Advice to fans

Fans also need to do their part, he said, by following the directions on their parking passes or at www.levisstadium.com/gettinghere/parking instead of relying on online or mobile navigation, old-school paper maps or their own sense of direction. The directions steer drivers to specific parking lots around road closures and attempt to spread traffic out.

Mercurio also urged fans to allow a little extra time until they get used traveling to Levi's Stadium.

"You can't leave your house at noon or maybe even 11 and expect to get there in time for a 1 o'clock game," he said. "We encourage people to leave a little early because they don't know what they will encounter."