Downtown Sacramento train riders, get ready to take a hike.

Passengers will find themselves walking the equivalent of two blocks across an expanse of dirt this summer when the city opens new passenger platforms in the downtown railyard.

The platforms for Amtrak and Capitol Corridor train riders, scheduled for July and August openings, are part of a multimillion-dollar track relocation project to make room for development in the largely empty railyard.

The new location, some 800 feet north of the I Street Depot and adjacent light-rail station, will add a couple minutes to travelers' itineraries.

That inconvenient state of affairs is supposed to be temporary.

But it could last for years, officials acknowledge.

The city plans to build a new transit station near the relocated tracks to supplement the undersized I Street depot. But officials say they don't have the money yet, aren't sure where it will come from, and have no firm construction plans.

City Councilman Steve Cohn said the city will try to make the walk to and from the depot and the light-rail station "safe, convenient and pleasant, so it doesn't feel like a death march."

That includes a wide path with a canopy to shelter travelers from sun and rain. The city may install a small plaza and landscaping.

Officials said they will talk with railroad representatives about having a golf cart available to wheel less able-bodied train riders to the platforms.

They say they also hope to have ticket machines in place at or near the platforms, so some passengers will not be required to go through the depot.

City transportation chief Jerry Way downplayed the inconvenience, saying the walking distance is less than passengers travel in large rail stations in Los Angeles, New York or Washington, D.C.

Some train riders nevertheless complain they are being treated like second-class citizens as the city pushes toward redevelopment of the downtown railyard.

"Our biggest fear is people won't walk," said Bob Reynolds, president of the Train Riders Association of California. "When they make it inconvenient, people will say (I'll) drive."

Longtime Capitol Corridor train rider Chuck Robuck has requested the city build some kind of structure near the tracks with heating and air conditioning. Others have suggested the city build restrooms at the platforms. City representatives say they don't have the money to add those amenities.

The track move, long in the planning stages, had to be done now as a necessary first step toward redeveloping the 240-acre railyard, city planners said.

The move creates the space to ramp up extensions of Fifth and Sixth streets on bridges over the tracks into the currently landlocked larger northern portion of the yard. Construction on the Fifth and Sixth Street bridges is well underway.

The track move also creates space behind the historic I Street depot for a modern transit center and potentially a sports and entertainment arena.

City transportation officials say they will submit an application for up to $20 million in transit center funding in March under the federal government's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery – or TIGER – program.

If the city wins that money, it would be used to finish renovating the old depot, and to add streetwork in the area planned for the new transit center.

The city was unsuccessful in three other recent efforts to win TIGER grants, and officials fear the next round of grants will be the last. But officials said they were buoyed earlier this month when federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited the site and praised the city for its efforts to transform the railyard into a transit-oriented business and residential district.

"We will see if we can get (Sacramento) across the finish line in the next TIGER proposal," LaHood said.

City officials said they also have not determined how they will get train riders to and from the tracks when a new transit center eventually is under construction on the site, or if an arena is built there.

"We haven't gotten to that level of detail yet because the concepts on where the (transit center) and arena will be located are still in progress," said the city's Fran Halbakken. "That is something we obviously need to make sure is going to work."

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