Trail Updates: Streetcar Style Rail-With-Trail Will Work in Mid-County

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're calling it the Streetcar Trail. The trail runs close to the rail where things are tight, and sometimes merges with the rail, just like streetcar rails all around California.

Streetcar Rail-With-Trail Design

The good news is that a Streetcar 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.

A Streetcar Rail-With-Trail design for the Mid-County Trail would support 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

We have been meeting with both local and Humboldt County agency staff over the last month 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.

Eureka Slough Rail Bridge Rail-with-Trail Bridge (Photo Credit: County of Humboldt )

Here in Santa Cruz County, the Streetcar Trail alternative must start with refurbishing the ballast and ties and 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.

The Current Challenge

The discussions with local and Humboldt County staff about Streetcar Rail-With-Trail design options were very productive. However, in our last meeting with city and county staff, they proposed a radical departure from what was previously discussed.

• First, staff said they needed to keep maintenance costs low, so they specified using concrete instead of asphalt for the full length of the project (from the San Lorenzo River Trestle to State Park Drive).

• The concrete alternative would cost around $540 per linear foot of trail.

• To compensate for that expense, staff want to put the trail in the center of the tracks for the whole length of the trail.

• Although the tracks would need to be refurbished before laying the concrete pads, staff did not include asking Roaring Camp for help. This added another $450 per linear foot to the cost.

• Staff also didn't evaluate the alternative of shifting the track to the side as part of their design.

Because of these costs, and the drawbacks of keeping the trail in the center of the tracks everywhere, staff said they intended to recommend removing the tracks. This is not a serious planning effort on their part.

Design for Success

In our work on the Streetcar Rail-With-Trail design, some clear principles for success have emerged:

• The RTC must start with realigning and refurbishing 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 Streetcar Rail-With-Trail design, we can build a beautiful trail while protecting our passenger rail future.