 Although it was never disclosed formally by the railroad, the local newspapers reported that the new depot was part of a larger plan to re-route all mainline passenger trains through downtown Berkeley while extending the Berkeley Branch tracks northward from Berkeley along or through the Berkeley Hills where they would re-join the existing mainline.This possibility was not welcomed by the community.In 1911, at the urging of the community backed up by a ruling by the California State Railroad Commission, the Southern Pacific replaced its small wooden depot at Delaware Street in West Berkeley which, although it lay along the existing mainline, was too small, and most mainline trains did not observe it as a scheduled stop.