The Campaign for Sensible Tranportation

GOOD NEWS: The State Transportation Commission unanimously approves our Rail Corridor acquisition!

rail line

On June 30—the last day to secure the Proposition 116 funding needed for purchasing the 32-mile Santa Cruz Branch Line rail corridor from Union Pacific—the California State Transportation Commission (CTC) voted unanimously in Sacramento to approve the RTC's request to purchase the rail corridor.

 Here is the official press release. 

While a few conditions remain to be met before the 116 funds will be released (expected to be accomplished by mid-August), the action by the CTC represents a major victory for Santa Cruz County.

About twenty of us journeyed to Sacramento—with most of us on the scenic Capitol Corridor train—to encourage a positive vote by the Commission. When the item came up, Supervisor Mark Stone (Vice Chair of our RTC) followed Executive Director's introductory remarks to provide an excellent summary of the situation, and called out all the organizations in support, ranging from ourselves to a number of unions, the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk before asking all supporters in the audience to stand up to be recognized. Immediately we all stood, wearing our fine engineers' hats that Micah had supplied us with—it was a great moment, with good laughter when a few train whistles were sounded.

Supervisor Stone was followed by Bill Tysseling, the Executive Director of our Chamber of Commerce, and Kris Reyes of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, both of whom registered their keen support. A letter of support from Senator Simitian was also submitted for the record. There were none speaking in opposition.

 Here is the Sentinel's story about what happened. 

Special thanks are due to CTC Commissioner Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, who made the motion to approve the 116 funding for the rail corridor acquisition. His quick action to clarify the CTC's staff recommendation was key, and kept us in suspense for a moment or two.

Thanks to all of you who wrote letters of support to the CTC. The Commission's unanimity clearly demonstrates the breadth of community support for this project.

RAIL FACTS:

  • The 32-mile rail line passes within one mile of almost half—120,000—of our county's residents.
  • The average width of the corridor is 75 feet, which allows for a dedicated multi-use trail adjacent to the tracks.
  • The rail line passes by many schools, state parks, businesses and other popular destinations in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Aptos, Watsonville and Davenport.
  • The line connects with Amtrak at Watsonville Junction (adjacent to Watsonville), and so will allow a connection with state and national rail systems.
  • Extensive documentation is now posted on our Regional Transportation Commission's website. Just click on this link to view the documents. Also, a recently updated list of FAQs is here.

Traffic jams. Lots of cars. Parking problems. Air pollution, neighborhood degradation, global warming.

Nearly 90% of the cars on our streets and roads have only a single occupant.

In California, roughly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation (50% in the Bay Area), mostly from private cars.

What to do?

We would like to see a more balanced transportation plan for Santa Cruz County than currently exists. For the past several years, our Regional Transportation Commission has specified that top priority for the use of available funds be given to projects that would add lanes to Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Watsonville, with lower priority given to projects that would enhance other public and private transportation alternatives.

A more balanced approach would include enhancing our bus system, making better use of Santa Cruz County's 32-mile rail corridor, projects for bicycles and pedestrians (including “safe routes to schools”) and projects for seniors and those with disabilities. Such a balanced approach would also help us to address the crucial issue of Greenhouse Gas emissions.

We do recognize the significant advantages of the private automobile, and while we do not advocate adding lanes to Highway 1 (which recent studies have shown to exacerbate Greenhouse Gas emissions), we do advocate other improvements that seem likely to increase mobility in the Highway 1 corridor, such as ramp-metering with bypass lanes on entrance ramps.

As noted in the box at the right, we are proposing a plan. We call it Plan C. It stresses Community needs, Choice, Climate protection and Corridor mobility. Although it might win voter support, it was not favored by the majority of the Transportation Funding Task Force members, and has yet to be seriously considered by our Regional Transportation Commission. The Highway 1 portion of Plan C is similar to the TSM alternative for the HOV Lanes Widening Project (described here), but without the auxiliary lanes.


Widening of Highway 1 is a 1950s-style attempt to solve a 21st century problem. Consider the following:

Do we really want to transform this:

Highway 1

Highway 1 from Rio del Mar overpass

into something that looks like this?

Highway 85

Highway 85 from Winchester Blvd overpass