Carmageddon: After major reversal on Coastal Rail Trail segments, what comes next?

Last Thursday’s meeting of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) was a major turning point for the Coastal Rail Trail project. By a 7-5 vote, the commission approved Commissioners Fred Keeley and Manu Koenig’s “peace deal” proposal to build trail Segments 9 through 11 on top of the tracks rather than next to them, which has been the plan for years.

Although the design involving the trail on top of the tracks, known as the “interim trail,” has already seen its environmental documents approved, the project planners working on the segments will have to put together a design proposal within two months, at the request of the commission.

“We gotta go about 120 miles an hour,” said RTC associate engineer Riley Gerbrandt.

City of Santa Cruz transportation planner Matt Starkey, who is the lead on Segments 8 and 9, said the first step is to connect with Caltrans, the state agency that awarded the $96 million grant to the segments.

“They will work us through the scope change process shifting from the ultimate trail [next to the tracks] to the interim trail,” he said, adding that the California Transportation Commission (CTC) ultimately has to approve that change, but that the proposed path forward is feasible. County Planner Rob Tidmore, who is in charge of Segments 10 and 11, said he’s confident that the CTC will allow the shift.

“It has all the same active transportation benefits and the same number of miles that we said we would provide in our grant applications,” said Tidmore.

Despite worry among train advocates that building the trail over the tracks will prove to be a serious roadblock for the development of rail service, planners say they interpret the move as a change in the time frame in which the rail and trail projects will come to fruition.

“What’s been the big tension in the community is that we want both of those now, but what we’re seeing is that the train is really complicated,” said Starkey. “It’s going to take time, but we have the money for the trail, so let’s get it done now.”

Additionally, Gerbrandt and City of Santa Cruz transportation planner Claire Gallogly said that building the interim trail will not get the RTC kicked out of the Corridor ID Program — a Federal Railroad Administration program that provides the RTC with rail planning and design services. The commission approved a resolution of support for future rail at its Thursday meeting.

“As long as we are committing to continuing to have passenger rail and intercity rail as part of our plan for the county, that’s what Caltrans is looking for,” said Gerbrandt.

On Friday, rail advocacy group Friends of the Rail and Trail commended the RTC’s decisions to continue supporting rail development and find ways to build the “interim” trail without removing the rail lines or railbanking — a strategy that takes a rail line out of service while theoretically preserving the corridor for future train use.

“The rail corridor is a part of our local public infrastructure. Following strong urging by members of the public, the RTC’s recommitment to rail sends an important signal to state and federal granting agencies that our future in Santa Cruz County includes rail service,” said Friends of the Rail and Trail board chair Matt Farrell in a media release.

Keeley and Koenig’s proposal involves a to-be-determined bureaucratic maneuver that would allow the RTC to put part of the rail line out of service temporarily, rather than railbanking – a controversial process that, while technically preserves the corridor and the RTC’s easements, has raised major concern among rail advocates who say that it’s highly unlikely that the rail line would ever see service return. 

The current railroad operator, Minnesota-based Progressive Rail, has opposed railbanking in the past. While Keeley and Koenig’s proposal aims to avoid railbanking, the RTC will still have to negotiate with Progressive Rail to move forward with whichever process the commission chooses. The company could oppose the move anyway, though, which would force the RTC to find another way to execute the move. That could be something as drastic as kicking Progressive Rail out of the contract with RTC and becoming the operator itself.

Tidmore said it’s unlikely that the planners will meet with Caltrans before the holidays, but once they do, they will begin the design changes and ultimately go to the Santa Cruz City Council and the county board of supervisors to get approvals. City of Santa Cruz planners are the leads on Segments 8 and 9, and county planners are heading the Segments 10 and 11 project.

The RTC and the project planners will need to complete the final design for the segments by April 2027 to meet the state grant’s June 2027 construction deadline.

Latest news

Check out our Carmageddon road project list here. This week, pay particular attention to:

• Roadway improvements are shutting down one lane of Highway 9 between Willowbrook Drive in Ben Lomond and the northern junction of Highway 236 through May 20, 2026. Work hours are 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays.

• Storm damage repairs on the railroad bridge at New Brighton State Beach in Capitola will cause intermittent traffic delays for those traveling to and from the park during December.

• Emergency sewer work in Soquel Village could occasionally block access to driveways, sidewalks, on-street parking and interrupt sewer service on weekdays until June 30, 2026, on Soquel Drive, Porter Street and Main Street. Work on Soquel Drive will be overnight from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Porter and Main Streets. Other, shorter-duration potholing on Porter, Main and Center streets and Daubenbiss Avenue will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• Striping work is causing overnight moving closures on northbound and southbound Highway 1 between Larkin Valley Road and the Pajaro River bridge from Monday through Friday between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

• Pavement work is shutting down a number of Highway 1 on- and off-ramps in and around Watsonville overnight on Monday from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Those are the northbound Riverside Drive off-ramp, the Main Street/northbound Highway 152 on- and off-ramps, the northbound Mar Monte Avenue on-ramp, the Larkin Valley Road southbound on-ramp and the Airport Boulevard on-ramp.

• Paving and electrical work is shutting down the northbound Highway 1 on-ramp at Main Street and the off-ramp at Airport Boulevard in Watsonville overnight between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. from Monday through Thursday. Paving is also shutting down the northbound Highway 1 on-ramp at Mar Monte Avenue in La Selva Beach between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

• A full closure of the Murray Street Bridge is scheduled to run until February 2026. It is closed to vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Vehicle traffic detours are along Soquel Avenue and Capitola Road via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Bicycles are being detoured across Arana Gulch and along Broadway via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Pedestrians are being detoured around the north harbor.

• The installation of the Newell Creek Pipeline on Graham Hill Road between Summit Avenue and Lockewood Lane is taking place on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and could cause delays of up to five minutes.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.