Millions of federal dollars available to move forward with rail

Santa Cruz County has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move forward with rail transit now, using tools that already exist and funding pathways that are already in motion.

By Sally Arnold

Anti-transit voices have been quick to repeat a familiar narrative: that rail in Santa Cruz County is dead, or so far off it might as well be. The March 29 Sentinel Editorial echoed this refrain. It’s a common soundbite — but it’s also a distraction. Because beneath the noise, the reality is much more positive. Santa Cruz County has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move forward with rail transit now, using tools that already exist and funding pathways that are already in motion.

The centerpiece of this path forward is the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program — better known as Corridor ID. This isn’t a vague idea or a long-shot grant. It’s a structured, step-by-step pipeline designed to take projects like ours from concept to construction, with significant levels of federal support at each phase.

Santa Cruz County’s rail line is already moving through that process. Caltrans’ Division of Rail has completed the scoping work and will begin developing a service plan this year. This step will include looking for ways to save money in the design of our local rail system and potential project phasing opportunities. All of this work will be done at no cost to our local agencies.

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If we stay the course, in another three years, the Corridor ID program will cover more than 80% of the costs of needed environmental work. We are not talking about some distant, hypothetical future. The Corridor ID program will prepare our local rail to compete for major state and federal construction funding within the next six years.

That’s what makes the current moment so important. Because while the path forward is real, it’s not guaranteed.

Recently, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) has made a series of risky choices that threaten to complicate that progress. Most notably, initiating a legal fight with Progressive Rail introduces uncertainty at exactly the wrong time. Legal conflicts, shifting priorities, and mixed signals can all slow momentum, raise red flags for funding partners and make a straightforward project appear unstable.

Another risky choice coming before the RTC is whether to tear out the tracks “temporarily.” Talk about a choice that would make our project appear unstable to funders! Once rail infrastructure is removed, the opportunity to deliver high-capacity, low-emission transit along this corridor becomes exponentially more difficult and expensive, if not impossible.

Both our rail and trail projects are benefiting from significant state and federal staff support and grant money. We need to make decisions that protect both parts of this integrated solution.

Keeping the rail line intact while building out a trail ensures we don’t have to choose between high quality transit and recreation. We can, and should, have both. This was never about rail or trail. It’s about rail and trail. This is what the voters have repeatedly made clear they want. Our commissioners need to deliver both.

If the RTC stays committed to both rail and trail and aligns its actions with the funding and planning already underway, the project the voters of Santa Cruz County want is within reach: A fully funded rail and trail, under construction within a decade, delivering benefits for generations.

But if the RTC continues to introduce unnecessary risk through legal fights, shifting strategies, or track removal, we could watch that opportunity slip away. The choice isn’t abstract. It’s immediate, and is being made at each RTC meeting.

In the future, will we look back and wonder why they gave up a once-in-a-generation opportunity, or will we be riding a train beside a world-class trail, grateful they chose both?

Sally Arnold is a Santa Cruz resident who has written previously for this section on rail and trail issues. Read the original article at https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2026/04/01/guest-commentary-rtc-has-millions-of-federal-dollars-available-to-move-forward-with-rail/