ARTICLE
Strategic choices regarding use of the rail corridor highlights the list of issues being considered by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC) as it begins planning investments to improve travel times and safety. Phase two of the Corridor Study will consider how best to balance the needs and interests of residents, available funds, and the opportunities offered by existing resources and investments. A key element and perhaps, the most contentious, will be the use of the rail corridor acquired by SCCRTC in 2012 from the Union Pacific Railroad. The Corridor Study will consider how to best balance the positive and negative impacts of possible investments on the quality of life of residents and the County’s economic capacity. The issues related to rail use are complex affecting many constituencies that have conflicting wants and priorities. The two largest interest groups with opposing interests appear to be the drivers of the vehicles that make approximately 100,000 automobile trips on Highway 1 each day and the residents whose homes border the railroad right-of-way concerned about the impacts of its increased. There are of course other political forces at work, hoping to influence the outcome of these decisions. Constituencies in support of the passenger rail also include: > Economic Community – employers, workers, and commercial property owners recognize the extraordinary inefficiency and millions of dollars of additional cost imposed on the county by traffic congestion. The minutes – for some, the hour or more – lost every day in travel time represent not only dollars lost but lost economic potential, new opportunities discouraged by the inefficiencies and uncertainty of travel times. > Housing advocates – commute times have serious impacts on the cost and availability of housing; as travel times increase, housing closer to employment and education centers increases in value while more distant sites become less attractive for housing development. > Environmentalists – the reduction in CO2 per-traveler-mile of an efficient passenger rail system could represent impressive reductions in travel-related environmental impacts. > “Pragmatic” Bicycle Advocates – most argue for the efficient use of the right-of-way (about 100 feet wide in most of the corridor) to create bicycle and pedestrian paths protected from automobile traffic (and separated by fencing from the rail line. They recognizing that not sharing the corridor could delay implementation of and improvement of the rail corridor by as much a decade or more, would likely reduce available public funding for the project, and could threaten the ultimate goal of a continuous dedicated path from Davenport to Monterey County. In addition to the concerns of residents who border the rail line, issues and opponents to passenger rail include: > Fiscal Watchdogs – the cost of passenger rail including bed and track upgrades, equipment, stations, parking, etc. may not be justified by the ridership. Studies to the contrary notwithstanding, these advocates argue the investment is not worth the risk. > The Impatient – arguing that the needs for maintenance and immediate improvements in transportation are so great that the SCCRTC should not dedicate available resources to long-term solutions. > “Purist” Bicycle Advocates – the opportunity to create several north-bound and south-bound lanes providing separate paths for fast riders, slower riders, and pedestrians – would optimize use, safety, aesthetic values, and fundamental changes in our transportation “culture.” > Auto Drivers – noting that the number of residents using the highways for travel far exceeds those using bicycles, some advocate for improving the predominant transportation paradigm (automobiles) to a satisfactory level prior to investing in the development of a new transportation alternative. The SCCRTC has made clear in its past planning – including the principal rationale for the nearly two decades it took to acquire the rail line – that it perceives commuter and recreational rail to be, at least potentially, a foundational element of the County’s transportation systems of the future. This has been the position of a substantial majority of the commission notwithstanding the relatively constant change-over of both commissioners and SCCRTC staff. While all of the positions described above (and more) have been argued in the commission proceedings and a variety of other public forums over the past 25 years, the SCCRTC’s positions has moved inexorably towards the development of passenger rail. At each step the commissioners have been required to consider whether to continue forward with rail planning. And, at each hearing they have done so. This has resulted in a number of commitments that would in varying degrees be difficult and/or expensive to break. These include obligations to: > the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to maintain the rail line for commercial use, > the State of California who granted the SCCRTC $12 million to purchase the right of way, > Iowa Pacific Holdings, a ten-year commitment to maintain and operate the rail line, and > the five local jurisdictions, each of whom now has vested rights the promised outcome. Use of the railroad right-of-way is not the only issue to be addressed, it is only one element of the SCCRTC Corridor Study. It is being undertaken through a $250,000 grant from CalTrans to evaluate the needs and alternatives for travel through the County on the three contiguous routes that run parallel to the ocean – the major transportation corridors in the County. The context for this study is both daunting and motivating. Travel-time per mile and safety incidents are among the very highest in California for similar corridors. Over the next 20 years the County’s transportation needs are projected to increase markedly: > AMBAG estimates 15% growth in population – an additional 35,000 residents – and a 19% growth in employment – an additional 20,917 job. > The Santa Cruz – Watsonville M.S.A. has for the past twenty years been one of the five least affordable metropolitan areas in the U.S. in which to live. With little expectation of reversing this trend, housing costs will continue to multiply further exacerbating commute need and travel times. New housing affordable to local workers from all income strata is likely to be farther away from those workers’ place of employment. > A decade ago the Transportation Funding Task Force (TFTF) spent two years developing a plan – finally adopted by a large but not unanimous majority and SCCRTC to invest in a $600MM plan to expand Highway 1 to three lanes in each direction plus one auxiliary lane… a plan THEN considered fundamental to achieving reasonable transportation efficiency. This plan was to be funded in part by a ½ cent sales tax and state and federal money highway funds. > A decade and a recession later (November 2016), that ½ cent sales tax was finally adopted – but allocated only 25% of the proceeds to Highway 1. More importantly, the state and federal funds for such projects (the lion’s share of the TFTF sources-of-funds plan) have disappeared over that decade. As a result, SCCRTC has abandoned – at least for the foreseeable future – the addition of an HOV lane to Highway 1. That lane was considered fundamental to addressing transportation needs of a decade ago – needs that by every measure have increased during that decade. The Corridor Study expects to: > Establish goals for the corridor including performance metrics > Collect and compile current data related to those metrics > Evaluate the results of likely shifts in transportation mode that might result from investment alternatives (transit, carpool, bicycle, train, etc.) > Develop a list of transportation projects, programs and policies for analyses including assumptions and projections regarding funding > Design three or four scenarios grouping projects, programs, and policies into likely combinations to test using the performance metrics. > Reduce these scenarios to a single scenario for more detailed analysis. > Develop a recommended package of priority projects, programs and policies to best achieve corridor goals cost effectively > Prepare and disseminate a Report of Unified Corridor Investment Study While the rail corridor is only one of the three corridors it is likely the most controversial and the least settled. To proceed the SCCRTC plans to research, either within the Corridor Study or separately, the following to inform its decision making regarding the rail corridor: > Research emerging passenger rail technologies > Research connecting transportation systems with which the rail corridor must integrate: metro, bicycle, pedestrian, automobiles > Detail passenger system requirements: vehicles, tracks, stations, parking > Research the experience of other smaller-population-area passenger rail systems > Research new passenger rail innovations e.g., electric self-propelled vehicles > Further analyze the market including updated and more detailed projections of passenger use > Further analyze investment costs – land (stations and parking), equipment, and facilities > Further analyze of operating cost > Investigate funding options Transportation Survey The Chamber encourages your participation in the SCCRTC survey that will inform both planners and commissioners in balancing interests and needs of the principle corridors across the county including Highway 1, Soquel Ave / Dr. and the rail corridor. The survey deadline is February 10. Online survey Paper Survey