Carmageddon: RTC plans pop-ups, ‘office hours’ to answer questions on $4.3B rail project

The next two months have a number of public engagement opportunities as the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission prepares to finalize a project concept report for its ambitious passenger rail project by the fall.

RTC staff presented the draft report’s executive summary to commissioners on Thursday, which raised alarm among some about the high $4.283 billion price tag, who will pay for it and voters’ appetite for approving a possible sales tax to help fund the project. 

RTC staff will now work on a more in-depth report estimating how much of the cost of building and operating the train local taxpayers would have to shoulder under different funding scenarios from taxpayers being on the hook for 20% of the costs up to half the costs of building the train, along with paying for the full cost of operating the rail service.

However, there is plenty more work that agency staff will be doing on the project in the coming months, in what RTC Executive Director Sarah Christensen called a “busy summer” for the agency.

Starting next Monday, the RTC will be hosting in-person and virtual office hours at various locations throughout the county. Transportation planner Riley Gerbrandt said on Thursday that the agency is doing this instead of the open houses and workshops that it has been running to this point because of community preference for more direct discussions. He added that the RTC is planning to host pop-up events at gathering places such as the Watsonville farmers market and Midtown Fridays summer block party.

“Our office hours are for people to come talk with us in a more intimate, small-scale setting,” he said. “We’re going to set some times for people to book with us both in the morning and the evening, both virtually and in person.”

Those sessions are scheduled for June 23 and 24 as well as July 14 and 15. The June 23 and July 15 sessions will be held at the Watsonville Civic Plaza Community Room, and the sessions on June 24 and July 14 will be held at the RTC office at 1101 Pacific Ave., Suite 250, in downtown Santa Cruz. Available times for in-person meetings are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 to 7 p.m., while virtual sessions will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Find more information and RSVP here.

That community engagement is in preparation for the commission’s Aug. 7 meeting, where there will be a public hearing on the full draft project concept report, which is expected to be available to view prior to August, and will include a more in-depth look at the components presented in the executive summary. At that meeting, staff will take more feedback and incorporate everything from the summer into the final project concept report slated for the fall, when it will be presented to commissioners.

Gerbrandt said the agency still needs to secure about $14 to $16 million in funding for the project’s environmental analysis — a process to evaluate the impacts of a project on the environment. Christensen said the agency is looking at possible grant opportunities, including funding from the Federal Railroad Administration Corridor ID program, which helps fund efforts to plan and develop intercity passenger rail and is part of former President Joe Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — a program that President Donald Trump has attempted to target through executive orders.

Christensen said the agency will have to compete with other projects for funding, “so it’s not a done deal that we’re going to just get it.” She added that it could fund up to 80% of the environmental work, if secured.

Christensen also said that the RTC is pursuing state funding sources aimed at developing commuter and intercity rail. Securing those funds is a competitive process, too, and Christensen said it is uncertain that the agency could get money from the program. She said there are also 2016 Measure D funds available to pay for environmental analysis for the rail project, but it would require a large portion of the Measure D funding allocated for rail to complete it.

“We have pretty limited funds locally secured right now,” she said. “But there are some potential opportunities out there.”

Latest news

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

• The Highway 1 off-ramps at Park Avenue will be closed for months as part of the Highway 1 expansion project. The southbound off-ramp will be closed for six months starting April 17. The northbound off-ramp was closed April 7 and will stay closed for four months.

• A full closure of the Murray Street Bridge will begin next Monday, June 23, and is slated to run until February 2026. It will be closed for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Vehicle traffic will be detoured along Soquel Avenue and Capitola Road via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Bicycles will be detoured across Arana Gulch and along Broadway via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Pedestrians will be detoured around the north harbor.

• Electrical work will cause alternating overnight closures of both lanes on northbound and southbound Highway 1 between Soquel Drive and 41st Avenue on Monday and Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Bridge work will cause alternating closures of both lanes of northbound and southbound Highway 1 between State Park Drive and Bay Avenue from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

• There will be a closure of about a half-mile of southbound Highway 1 near Bonny Doon Road and a closure with a one-way reversing traffic control on northbound Highway 1 at the same area between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday. 

• There will be a two-week closure of the off-ramp from southbound Highway 17 at Sims Road starting Monday at 8 p.m. for emergency drainage repairs. There will also be an overnight closure of the right lane of southbound Highway 17 near Sims Road from Monday at 8 p.m. until Tuesday at 5 a.m.

• The installation of a water treatment plant pipeline will take place in Soquel, along Soquel Drive between Cunnison Lane and Cinnamon Street, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Cunnision Lane from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. The closures will move between lanes and will last until early July.

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

• There will be overnight single-lane closures of Soquel Drive between La Fonda Avenue and State Park Drive from Tuesday through July 1 for repaving and striping along the road. The closures will take place between 7:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. from Sundays through Thursdays.

• Tree work, utility work and slope repair will close down sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those sections are between Henry Cowell Redwoods Vista Point and Glengarry Road, lower Glen Arbor Road and Arboleda Way, Arboleda Way and Scenic Drive, Irwin Way and Lomond Street, and Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue.

• In Watsonville, a single lane on Green Valley Road from Holohan Road to Casserly Road is closed for the Multi-Use Trail Improvement Project, a two-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail along the road. Lane closures occur from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Additionally, a single lane is closed on Buena Vista Drive and Ranport Road for overhead tree trimming on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., causing potential delays.

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