In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident pushes for a bike and pedestrian trail now along the county’s branch rail line and to leave a passenger train for a future era.
rail trail opinion
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: We might need a revote on the train
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident contends that the county’s rail line is inadequate for the kind of rail transit system voters have expressed support for.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County needs a reality check on the rail-trail project
Matt Farrell, board chair of Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail and Trail, takes issue with a Feb. 4 op-ed questioning the feasibility of passenger rail in Santa Cruz County. Here, he explains why our community wants a rail system, revisits what voters have previously decided and provides an update on the segments of the trail already being built.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Why won’t the dream of a train die?
Santa Cruz leaders have considered building a train from Watsonville to Davenport for decades, and the Regional Transportation Commission has repeatedly approved studies on cost and feasibility. Measure D (2022) was among the costliest and most contentious ballot initiatives in recent memory and saw 70% of voters reject a plan prioritizing a trail. More than two years after that vote, the RTC is waiting for the results of a $20 million environmental impact study on the feasibility of a rail. Will Mayall questions the logic of all the money and time poured into the idea of rail service: “At some point, we have to ask: Are we clinging to this train dream because it’s the best solution, or because we’re reluctant to admit it isn’t?”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: No, the sky is not falling – the RTC is doing just what it needs to do on rail trail
In a letter to the editor, a Soquel resident takes issue with a recent opinion piece about the Coastal Rail Trail.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Diversions and deceptions – in the rail-trail debate, Santa Cruz County is getting more rail and less trail
Transportation activist Jack Brown remains skeptical about the rail trail’s development after looking at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s June design plan. “There simply is not room for a rail and a trail as has been promised by rail groups for over a decade,” he writes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Let’s stop using the word ‘diversion’ about the rail trail
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. Santa Crua County is in the process of designing, funding and building a “main trail” spanning the county south to north as part of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail. From time to time, the route of this […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Koenig and McPherson say they support rail, but vote against it
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz reader takes County Supervisors Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson to task for, as she sees it, saying they support rail transportation in Santa Cruz County and then voting against it.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
RTC needs to answer hard questions about rail trail
The Regional Transportation Commission has not done its job on the rail-trail debate, writes local activist Jack Brown. Here, he offers 12 questions he believes commissioners have failed to answer. Brown supported Measure D, the 2022 Greenway ballot initiative calling for a trail-only option. He says Santa Cruz County has lost too much time and money on a flawed idea.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Board of supervisors has what it needs to move rail-trail project forward
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors needs to vote Tuesday to move forward with the coastal rail-trail project, writes Matt Farrell, board chair of Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail and Trail. If not, our community won’t meet the state’s requirements to receive nearly $68 million in state grant funding, he says. Two supervisors, Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson, voted no on the most recent round.