Hybrid Rail-With-Trail Design Can Save Mid-County Grants
- Friends of the Rail and Trail
- Apr 27
- 4 min read
You may already know that the RTC is trying to find cost savings for the Mid-County Rail Trail so they can stay within the state grant budgets. This is the trail that goes from the San Lorenzo River to State Park Drive in Aptos.
The first cost-saving idea, proposed by Mayor Keeley and Supervisor Koenig at the 2025 December 4 meeting, was to remove the rails and build the trail down the center of the tracks. After a friendly amendment by Justin Cummings’ alternate Andy Schiffrin, the commission also asked staff to develop a Rail-With-Trail alternative.
We like calling it the Streetcar Trail because it brings the trail close to or overlapping the tracks, the way that streetcar rails run through streets. This hybrid trail-with-rail design runs close to the rail where things are tight, and sometimes merges with the rail, just like streetcar rails all around California.
Rail-With-Trail Design
The good news is that a streetcar-style Rail-With-Trail design is feasible, affordable, and delivers the full trail length specified in the grants within the required timeline.
All across California, including in Santa Cruz on Chestnut and Beach Streets, rails are embedded in asphalt and run closely beside sidewalks and bike lanes. For increased safety, the gap alongside the rails (the flangeway) can be filled with a rubber strip called a flangeway filler. The train wheel presses it down and then it springs back to level. We think they should also be using these in front of the Boardwalk, but that's a different topic.
The hybrid Rail-With-Trail design for the Mid-County Trail supports interim Rail use, such as slow speed freight, rail vehicle demonstrations (at streetcar speed) and streetcar-speed excursion service. It would need partial reworking when higher-speed passenger rail is built; it's an interim solution to bridge the time until we build the passenger rail system.
Design Details Matter
Since December 2025, we have been meeting with both local and Humboldt County agency staff to develop the design concept for the Streetcar Rail-With-Trail alternative.
A similar approach was used in Humboldt County when they built their Humboldt Bay Trail and refurbished the Eureka Slough Bridge (a 700’ long standard-gauge freight bridge). On the bridge, they refurbished the tracks, filled in the area between and beside the rails, and added rubber flangeway fillers to create a smooth cycling and walking surface.
Here in Santa Cruz County, the Streetcar Trail alternative must start with relocating the tracks to one side of the corridor. Roaring Camp has offered to donate the labor for this work.
Moving the rails to the side is a foundational step that will increase the areas where the trail can be built beside the tracks without needing retaining walls. Moving the tracks now also means less need for future rail relocation. This part of construction could begin well within the state grant deadlines.
Once the tracks are shifted, the Streetcar Trail alternative can use a flexible multi-pronged approach:
Where there is space, build the ultimate trail design, separating the rail and the trail.
Where there is room for the trail but not enough room for full separation, build the trail closer to the rails.
Anywhere the trail must contact the rail line, use asphalt paving between the rails, and use rubber flangeway fillers so that the track area can be used as a trail shoulder.
Where the width is very tight, such as over bridges, merge the trail right-of-way with the rail line, as is done on the Eureka bridge and with the auto right-of-way on Chestnut and Beach Streets in Santa Cruz. Use asphalt paving and rubber flangeway fillers to create a stable, smooth and trip-free surface.
This approach minimizes the need for costly earthworks and retaining walls, creating a practical, affordable, and accessible Rail-With-Trail. The streetcar approach to design saves the trail grants and also preserves our rails so we can continue the passenger rail project.
Design for Success
In our work on the hybrid Rail-With-Trail design, some clear principles for success have emerged:
The RTC must start with realigning the tracks, which Roaring Camp has repeatedly offered to do.
The places where the trail merges with the rails should be limited to only those areas where there is no room next to the tracks, only after the tracks are moved, where necessary to accommodate the trail.
The trail surface must be asphalt, not concrete. This is an interim, temporary trail. Maintenance of infrastructure is normal; it's unacceptable to use maintenance costs as an excuse to make a project so expensive as to be infeasible.
If the Regional Transportation Commission and staff from Santa Cruz City and County accept Roaring Camp's help, if they move the tracks to the side where it is feasible and necessary, and if they adopt the common sense Rail-With-Trail design, we can build a beautiful trail while protecting our passenger rail future.
What’s at Stake
Trail Funding (state Active Transportation Program grants)
$103 million secured in December 2023 through California’s Active Transportation Program
Intended to complete critical trail segments from Santa Cruz to Aptos (Segments 8–11)
Rising construction costs and Capitola's insistence on the most expensive design make it challenging to deliver this trail within budget.
To retain this funding, we must lower costs and begin construction before March 2027
Rail Funding (federal Corridor Identification and Development program)
$20 million to $3+ billion potential investment
Supports planning, engineering, and environmental work for passenger rail
Places our rail corridor into the federal construction funding pipeline
Currently Caltrans Rail is 2 years into 5 years of planning that is 100% funded by state and federal grants (steps 1 & 2 of Corridor ID). We are already receiving the benefit of millions of dollars of grants for rail planning.
In 2029, if our rail project qualifies to move into Step 3, over 80% of environmental work and of the preliminary engineering will be covered by state and federal funding for this step.
Once Step 3 is done in about 6 years, we will be positioned to apply for 80% federal matching grants for rail construction.
Together, these represent a rare alignment of resources to deliver a connected, multimodal system for Santa Cruz County. This comes at a time when California continues to increase commitment to transit, and worldwide, transit is seen as critical to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
If the RTC removes or buries our rail line, our corridor will probably not qualify to advance to Step 3, and will be excluded from state and federal construction grants.
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