Quick Take
Lookout photojournalist Kevin Painchaud took to the streets to talk to residents about their perspectives on the planned passenger train and 32-mile coastal trail, whether they would regularly use either, and if they would support higher sales taxes to help pay for the ambitious projects. The debate over the train and trail pits transit advocates against residents concerned about soaring costs and practicalities of a local commuter train.
A fierce debate over the future of transportation is dividing Santa Cruz County residents as local officials confront billions in costs for an ambitious passenger train project along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line.
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s proposed 22-mile passenger rail line connecting Natural Bridges to Pajaro could cost as much as $4.3 billion to build and up to $41 million annually to operate. Cost overruns are already mounting for the 32-mile Coastal Rail Trail from Davenport to Watsonville, with RTC officials warning earlier this month that the agency needs an additional $72 million to complete 8 miles’ worth of trail construction. Some have even declared the train project dead.
MORE RAIL & TRAIL: Lookout news coverage | Community Voices opinion
This week, Lookout photojournalist Kevin Painchaud took to the streets to talk to local residents and get their perspectives on the project, whether they would ride the train, use the trail, and if they would support higher sales taxes to help pay for the ambitious projects.
David Waller, who is retired and lives in Santa Cruz, said he sees a local passenger train as an unnecessary luxury. “Our taxes are already pretty high in California. We’re running a deficit. We have more important things to spend our money on,” he said. “I don’t have anywhere to commute to and a rail system generally wouldn’t go to the places that I do go to in my retired life.”
While Santa Cruz resident James Holderman considers the rail line’s cost prohibitive and said he lives too far to use the train; he supports pushing ahead to complete the trail. “I would definitely use that for recreation,” he said. “To be able to get from Davenport to Watsonville would be awesome.”
The train found stronger support among younger residents. Duncan Moran, a student living on Santa Cruz’s Westside, acknowledged concerns about the prospect of hiking sales taxes to pay for a train but said he thinks the benefits of better public transportation around the Monterey Bay region would outweigh the financial drawbacks. “I think there’s plenty of very wealthy people in Santa Cruz who could definitely front that cost for us,” he said.
Julia Gompertz, a Santa Cruz student originally from Los Angeles, emphasizes the need for better transit access for young people. “More public transportation is always a great thing, especially for students commuting from Watsonville to Santa Cruz to go to school here,” she said.
Controversy over the train was only heightened after a recent meeting when transportation officials revived the idea of railbanking — temporarily removing tracks for trail construction while preserving future rail options. More than 70% of county voters firmly rejected the idea in 2022’s Measure D.
In December, the Regional Transportation Commission is slated to consider both railbanking and whether to advance the passenger rail project to environmental review. Meanwhile, officials are pursuing state and federal funding to close the trail’s budget shortfall.
Debbie Martwick of Felton questioned both the train’s viability and the railbanking proposal. “Ripping up the old train tracks? I’m not sure that’s even a good idea,” she said, suggesting local transit officials explore establishing a smaller local train service similar to Roaring Camp Railroad’s tourism-focused operations. “The commuter train just doesn’t seem to make sense to me at this point,” she said. “And the cost seems prohibitive.”
Jim Anderson of Felton said he doesn’t support the idea of a train but doesn’t like the idea of banking the tracks to speed up construction of a trail, either. “It seems really expensive to pull out [the tracks] just to make a trail out of it,” he said. “There’s enough trails in California.”
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