Dear Greenway Supporter,

We want to update you on the latest outrage coming out of the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) at its September 3, 2020 meeting. We have laid out below the dramatic and sudden increase in spending on the RTC designed trail next to the existing train tracks revealed at the meeting.

The ever increasing costs will prevent most segments from being built in the next five years. All the while, our tax dollars will continue to be wasted on studies, planning, bridge inspections, maintenance and figuring out what we actually own in the corridor vs. private property owners. Needless to say, the continued ineptitude of the RTC is directly related to the election for 1st District Supervisor this Fall.

If you are done with the way our tax dollars are being wasted, we suggest you vote for Manu Koenig in the election for 1st District Supervisor (https://manukoenig.com/donate). We must send a clear signal to the RTC Commissioners that business as usual is no longer acceptable and their elected positions will be the next to be contested! One of the very few ways the public can truly hold the RTC accountable is by removing Commissioners (like John Leopold) when they continue to support this outrageous waste.

The 5 Year Measure D spending plan for the rail corridor was reviewed at the September 3 meeting. Measure D, passed in 2016, is where your tax dollars are going for transportation in Santa Cruz County. If you want to be shocked, get ready!

The RTC expects to spend $32.5M of Measure D funds for about 2 miles of completed trail over the next five years. Most of it will be spent on maintenance, planning and very little trail building.

Most of the ultra expensive trail being proposed by the RTC is unfunded, but consider the three segments below (two of which are in the 1st District):

Phase 2 of Segment 7 (Bay/California to the Wharf, about 1 mile) needs $10M to be completed.
Segments 8/9 (San Lorenzo Bridge to 17th Ave), needs $26M to be completed.
Segments 10/11 (17th Ave to 47th Ave) needs $62M to be completed.

The reported total cost in the RTC’s Project Fact Sheet for Segments 8/9 is $34.6M and for Segments 10/11 is $66.3M! We’re not making this up. For Segments 8/9’s 1.7 miles and Segments 10/11’s 1.5 miles, the RTC is estimating it will spend over $100 MILLION, or about $31 MILLION per mile (if you’re having fun with math, that’s $5,972 PER FOOT!). Most trails in the U.S. are built for an average cost of $2M - $3M per mile!

Greenway has said since 2015 that the trail being proposed by the RTC (FORT, the Santa Cruz Land Trust and Ecology Action) makes absolutely no sense. As we see from the ACTUAL COST ESTIMATES, it is abundantly clear that our conclusions were and are correct. We have said all along that Segment 7 Phase 1, itself costing $8M for 1.3 miles, is the easiest segment to build. With large concrete retaining walls, new bridges, steep terrain, track movement, ecologically sensitive habitat and heritage tree removal in Segments 9, 10 and 11, taxpayers are incurring ridiculous expenses, when the obvious solution is to use the width of the corridor and existing infrastructure for a wide multi-use trail.

And to continue with the RTC’s train obsession, a private company named TIG/m, with a prototype battery powered trolley, is proposing a demonstration of its product in the Spring of 2021. Again, it’s important to remember that the previous solution being pushed by the RTC and FORT was the SMART train in Sonoma/Marin.

Now that SMART is beset with financial problems, its tax extension defeated in March, and proposed service cuts, it is no longer the model. We are asked to forget that they have been pushing SMART for the last 3 years! Greenway analyzed SMART extensively and provided that information to the RTC and public in 2018 (https://sccgreenway.org/smart-comparison), but they knew better.

It’s very important for the public to know what’s going on, since this reckless spending and bureaucratic creep happen at every RTC meeting and are supported by the majority of the Commissioners. With extreme challenges and needed funding in our community around public health, fires, economic recovery, education, homelessness and affordable housing, the consistently wrong decisions driving the waste outlined above are unconscionable.

The first step to reverse the dramatic waste of taxpayer dollars on studies, planning, maintenance, and bureaucracy (and build an affordable wide multi-use trail with existing infrastructure) is to elect Manu Koenig as 1st District Supervisor (https://manukoenig.com/donate), and then find like-minded candidates for other city and county positions who sit on the RTC. If we don’t start now, the prospect of spending hundreds of millions of dollars with no transportation value is VERY REAL.