Taking out the tracks is a terrible idea
- Friends of the Rail and Trail
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Guest Commentary by Bruce Sawhill in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
It’s not a secret that the people of Santa Cruz County want both a trail and future rail service. This has been demonstrated through the results of multiple ballot measures, as well as polling and the wildly popular Coast Futura electric rail demonstration.
We know that once tracks are removed, they’re gone. Nowhere in America where tracks have been removed and replaced by a paved trail has that trail been removed, relocated and rail service returned within the same right of way.
Despite this fact, the RTC, county and city staff are quietly working on two competing proposals for how to build the trail, one of which is the ghost of the defeated Measure D coming back to haunt both our present and our future.
The first option the RTC is developing is to rip up the tracks and replace them with a paved trail. That is exactly the vision that was presented by Greenway in 2022 with Measure D. The measure was soundly rejected by 73% of voters in Santa Cruz County, the biggest defeat of a countywide measure in at least 50 years, if not all time.
Following advocacy by rail and trail proponents, the commissioners asked for another option to consider: a hybrid trail-with-rail approach that keeps the tracks, while still constructing a paved trail. The hybrid approach puts the trail next to the tracks, with a safe and smooth surface installed in narrow areas where the trail and the tracks merge, mostly bridges. Hybrid trail-with-rail models exist, such as in Humboldt County — where a trail was constructed alongside and within existing tracks, accommodating bicyclists, strollers and wheelchair users, while preserving rail tracks. Users like it.
Tearing out the tracks creates a potentially fatal funding problem because key federal resources associated with the “Corridor ID” program could be lost if the tracks are removed.
RTC Executive Director Sarah Christiansen recently said: “Removing the tracks doesn’t change our eligibility or level of competitiveness.”
But Rob Cunningham of the Caltrans Division of Rail stated otherwise at the January RTC meeting. When asked specifically if track removal would affect our eligibility he said, “the FRA is going to be considering which ones to advance into Step 3 based on readiness criteria, and near-term decisions that could affect that timeline may impact their evaluation of whether the corridor is actually ready to advance into Step 3.”
The Federal Railroad Administration, not Caltrans, is the ultimate agency responsible for Corridor ID program funding. Securing Federal Railroad Administration funding for rail projects is a competitive process. Simply put, the Federal Railroad Administration doesn’t favor funding requests for future rail projects that have compromised “readiness criteria” by ripping up tracks.
Why should anyone care about Corridor ID? It is a pathway to have 90% of a rail project’s cost covered from federal and state sources. Future dedicated trail bridges, trail widening and retaining structures could become part of those subsidized costs rather than the responsibility falling fully on Santa Cruz County.
Ms. Christiansen’s comments also raise concerns about the RTC staff’s commitment to follow the direction of the commissioners and provide impartial analysis of the innovative and proven hybrid trail-with-rail model. Voter rejection of the trail-only model provides a clear imperative for full and serious consideration of the hybrid trail option.
At the center of the plan to tear out the tracks was the drive to preserve state trail grant funds that are jeopardized if the RTC doesn’t proceed with trail construction. Their plan didn’t consider the rail funds at risk if they choose track removal. To be successful, the plan must get our community a trail, while also preserving the tracks for future rail. The hybrid trail-with-rail model is truly a win-win-win because it protects the vital trail grant funds, stays true to the will of the voters and strongly positions our community for future funding to support rail transit. Keep the tracks!
Bruce Sawhill is a board member of Friends of the Rail and Trail (FORT) and a Santa Cruz resident.
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