Dear Commissioners:
It is a sad day when Commission meetings are hijacked by a private company and a local advocacy group pushing an agenda that is not supported by even one Commissioner. As far as we know, no Commissioner is interested in a public/private partnership with a small company with no track record in commuter rail that wants to privatize the rail corridor! Yet, the circus continues, diverting valuable time and resources from providing the community with real transportation solutions.
It’s now clear that the train lobby wants metal wheels running on the tracks regardless of the value to the community. It’s another diversion tactic to turn attention away from Greenway’s pro-transit, funded and doable strategy to combine improvements to Metro and Hwy 1 with a new accessible, continuous and multi-use Greenway.
Please consider the following:
The TIG/m plan proposes to privatize a trolley service on the rail corridor from Davenport to Capitola. The RTC has never studied or recommended such a use of the corridor.
All the up front investment (tens of millions of dollars) to make the tracks and corridor suitable for passenger service is borne by taxpayers.
There is no service to Watsonville. Up until now, FORT has argued vehemently that service to Watsonville is a requirement for “social equity”. Suddenly, it does not matter.
TIG/m says it will make a profit on the service and share 5% of the net profits with the RTC (after it has taken all its expenses and 95% of net profits, if any). This is simply absurd. No train on the corridor has made a profit and there is zero evidence that TIG/m will either.
TIG/m is a small undercapitalized company in Southern CA.Turning the corridor over to such a business is unacceptable. The proposal would take our public asset and privatize it. This is NOT public transit!
TIG/m has no experience operating any of their products at this scale. They have never operated at commuter rail speeds and distances in any of their 4 other short (< 2 mile) tourist implementations, 1 of which is no longer in operation. The “demo” will run at 10 MPH. Street crossing signals at busy intersections along the demo route do not work, requiring flag persons to stop cars.
No RTC Commissioner supports a public/private partnership to privatize the corridor.
There is no funding identified to support this proposal.
Since it’s a service from Capitola to Davenport, it is by definition a tourist/recreational service and will not address traffic congestion issues in Santa Cruz County.
Like other previous train proposals, it will take away the possibility of a CONTINUOUS trail on the corridor, which dramatically reduces the effectiveness of real transit on the corridor.
TIG/m would take years to implement, including new environmental review, and in the end would not solve any of the pressing transportation issues in SCC.
What the RTC Should Do:
Railbank the corridor and build an interim trail now.
Continue to invest in METRO to restore routes, increase frequency, move to all electric buses similar to the one just implemented for a circular route in downtown Watsonville, install WIFI on all buses, modernize interiors, and provide app-based geolocation and updated arrival/departure times.
Continue to invest in ParaCruz and Lift Line to provide door-to-door service for the elderly and diabled which actually meets their needs.
Move forward expeditiously with approved and funded Measure D programs, including Bus-on-Shoulder on Hwy 1 and Adaptive Signal Control on Soquel/Freedom.
Act with urgency! With the Eaton Street Bridge seismic repair scheduled for 2022 and Bus-on-Shoulder on Hwy 1 scheduled for 2023, Santa Cruz County’s transportation issues will get worse as two major north-south arteries are impacted by construction. The need to build an interim commute pathway on the rail corridor is urgent!
Thank you for your consideration of the real issues in front of the Commission. We hope that you will move forward expeditiously in providing real transportation solutions to the residents of Santa Cruz County.
Sincerely,
Board of Directors
Santa Cruz County Greenway