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RTC moves past TIG/m, Roaring Camp request for partnership
Commissioners untempted by double-decker tourist vehicle concept
An old railroad siding in Watsonville is reflected in the windows of TIG/m's Coast Future streetcar as the company's president Brad Read finishes speaking before a demonstration in October. (Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
By Melissa Hartman | mhartman@santacruzsentinel.com |
PUBLISHED: November 4, 2021 at 7:03 p.m. | UPDATED: November 5, 2021 at 2:47 p.m.
SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission on Thursday dismissed the opportunity for a public/private partnership with California-based trolly manufacturer TIG/m and local tourist excursion service Roaring Camp Railroad.
TIG/m has shown its interest in collaborating with the commission in public transit on the rail corridor for a few years, most recently with the Coast Futura streetcar demonstration last month — a move that queued dozens of thank-yous from rail proponents during communications at the start of the meeting. Commissioner Kristen Petersen compared the streetcar to a tourist vehicle such as the Disneyland monorail.
However, TIG/m laid all its cards on the table with an unsolicited proposal submitted to the RTC on Sept. 1. The proposal eliminated the option of commuter passenger rail from Watsonville to Santa Cruz, something TIG/m had proposed as a part of an industry group in June 2020. This time around, TIG/m pitched a double-decker car that traveled between Santa Cruz and Capitola.
"Although the TIG/m and Roaring Camp demonstration on the rail line was an educational opportunity to learn about recent advancements in rail technology, it did not provide information that would make commuter rail easier or less expensive to implement," RTC Executive Director Guy Preston wrote in his report to the commission this week.
Preston and his team feel that TIG/m's cost estimate in the application suffered many exclusions and omissions, not limited to but including the cost and schedule for environmental clearance, right-of-way acquisitions and safety systems. It also did not include the initial investment by the RTC or any other maintenance cost.
At the time of the initial proposal for a public/private partnership, RTC staff met with the entities — Joe Kneib Consulting, Urban Innovations, TIG/m and Mark Johannessen — and determined that the relationship was not something RTC should entertain at the time.
"RTC felt that the team did not understand the existing condition of the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, did not understand the need to environmentally clear a new commuter passenger rail project and was not experienced with delivering a major infrastructure development of this nature (or) maintaining an asset of this nature," Preston wrote.
The commission did not take action to approve or deny the unsolicited proposal but instead echoed its staff's earlier sentiments; it was not the right time.
"Today may not be the day to approve the concept, but I do think it still needs consideration," Commissioner Alternate Lowell Hurst said. "Through the demonstration, we saw the future a little bit and our job is to move forward and get the community moving … Please don't leave south county out."
When passenger rail is built, commissioners such as Felipe Hernandez volunteered to ensure that Roaring Camp's tourist operations and south county freight operations would be protected. This was appreciated by industrial representatives such as Big Creek Lumber Co.'s Bob Berlage.
"The company has been receiving freight by rail in Watsonville for 50 years without interruption, and that's very important to us to remain competitive," Berlage said. "Freight by rail is down, that's true, but as Preston pointed out in the staff report it's temporary – it has to do with COVID-19 restrictions nationwide and the serious supply chain problem nationwide. We believe that's going to stop."
Tracing the track back
Upon the filing of TIG/m's first proposal, the majority of RTC members had illustrated that their preferred future use of the corridor would be passenger light rail. But in November 2020, Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad followed up on an earlier threat and filed a 90-day notice of intent to abandon freight rail service on the rail line.
Shortly thereafter, with which agency would assume the maintenance responsibilities of the corridor up in the air, the RTC accepted the Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis study in February 2021. Then the railroad service notified the RTC it no longer intended to abandon the tracks in March; the RTC rejected the corridor alternatives analysis business plan by early May.
The day after TIG/m's most recent proposal, Preston briefed the RTC with what he knew in a regularly scheduled meeting. At the time, strategies to preserve the rail right-of-way, including the concept of railbanking, were discussed. Railbanking is an effort in which tracks can be removed or left intact to allow for temporary uses of a corridor, such as an interim trail for walking, biking and running.
The commission came to a difficult finding — for now, preservation was all that they would be able to do. Without the business plan passed, grant funding sources the agency could create a project to qualify for have not yet been thoroughly investigated.
"Although there are competitive state and federal funding grant opportunities, a new dedicated local source would be needed to access and leverage these grant funds," Preston wrote in his report.
A few commissioners doubted the viability of voters passing a strictly rail tax measure anytime soon, including RTC member and County Board of Supervisors Chair Bruce McPherson.
"Unless we're able and willing to divert a large amount of discretionary funds to this project … or pass another ballot measure, we don't have the local funds needed to move forward at this time," McPherson said. "Immediate implementation of passenger rail would be a false promise, end of story."
Commissioner Alternate Andy Schiffrin agreed.
"Measure D was a compromise and required support by those with a wide range of interests, and it narrowly passed," Schiffrin said.
The corridor alternatives analysis estimated the capital cost for electric passenger rail to be from $465 million to $478 million. Maintenance would cost approximately $25 million a year.
Commissioner Mike Rotkin called part of the estimate, including a 20% to 50% match of local funds to applicable rail grants, premature. Especially with President Joe Biden's Build Back Better infrastructure bill and the state rail plan in development, those conditions could change.
"I think the idea of making it clear that when we talk about an interim trail, it's interim trail for the most part in places that do not prohibit the future development of rail. We made it clear to the public that we are committed to having passenger rail," Rotkin said. "I'm sorry, the people who want it tomorrow afternoon, you'll have to deal with the scale of the project you're talking about."
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Melissa Hartman
Melissa Hartman started with the Sentinel in October 2020 and reports on county, health and transportation matters. A graduate of San Jose State University's Dwight Bentel School of Journalism and Mass Communications, she has been reporting in Northern California since 2017. Melissa is an East Bay Area native and has previously worked at the Los Altos Town Crier and Bay City News Service.
mhartman@santacruzsentinel.com
Follow Melissa Hartman	@_melissahartman
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