SMART addresses vegetation problem on large non-revenue property in Corte Madera - Northwestern Pacific Railroad Network2024-03-29T07:22:36Zhttp://nwprr.net/forum/topics/smart-addresses-vegetation-problem-on-large-non-revenue-property?commentId=3290209%3AComment%3A193745&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe short answer is whenever…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-20:3290209:Comment:1936712019-06-20T20:34:31.269ZRichard Sotelohttp://nwprr.net/profile/RichardSotelo
<p>The short answer is whenever the Larkspur extension is completed. No contracts for building the Windsor extension have been put up for bid. The hope by the board is that the same crews will build it.</p>
<p>The short answer is whenever the Larkspur extension is completed. No contracts for building the Windsor extension have been put up for bid. The hope by the board is that the same crews will build it.</p> On a lighter note, I drove ov…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-20:3290209:Comment:1938682019-06-20T18:59:23.103ZC Glovehttp://nwprr.net/profile/ChadGlover
<p>On a lighter note, I drove over the Shilo crossing the other day and multiple pickups and people in vests walking both sides of the crossing. Is there a start date for the Windsor extension? </p>
<p>On a lighter note, I drove over the Shilo crossing the other day and multiple pickups and people in vests walking both sides of the crossing. Is there a start date for the Windsor extension? </p> Isn't the ROW north of Healds…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-19:3290209:Comment:1935802019-06-19T00:42:01.292ZJames Bradley, Jr.http://nwprr.net/profile/JamesBradleyJr
<p>Isn't the ROW north of Healdsburg owned by NCRA, a public agency? If so, then taxpayer money is justified in upgrading the tracks and other facilities. NWP is the company that runs the railroad, but they do not own the ROW. They simply would run their trains on it. The tracks and other facilities are owned by NCRA.</p>
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<p>I agree that SMART has no basis or justification for entering Napa or Mendocino counties. While I'm all for expanded rail service to those counties, the voters…</p>
<p>Isn't the ROW north of Healdsburg owned by NCRA, a public agency? If so, then taxpayer money is justified in upgrading the tracks and other facilities. NWP is the company that runs the railroad, but they do not own the ROW. They simply would run their trains on it. The tracks and other facilities are owned by NCRA.</p>
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<p>I agree that SMART has no basis or justification for entering Napa or Mendocino counties. While I'm all for expanded rail service to those counties, the voters of those counties would need to agree to pay taxes toward the SMART system. They are not currently included, and thus should not receive the benefits of SMART.</p>
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<p>Just my 2-cents worth.</p>
<p>--James</p> Richard- I did not state my c…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-18:3290209:Comment:1937652019-06-18T06:08:31.121ZJeff Moorehttp://nwprr.net/profile/JeffMoore
<p>Richard- I did not state my case well. In your original message you said, in this order:</p>
<p></p>
<p>- As our NCRA stated last week, their right of way running from Eureka to Lombard is classified as a "local railroad" line.</p>
<p>- The NWP freight portion of the RoW is a privately held company.</p>
<p>- SMART on the other hand is publicly financed by the tax payer of Sonoma and Marin County.</p>
<p></p>
<p>As near as I can tell, SMART is a special district composed of Sonoma and Marin…</p>
<p>Richard- I did not state my case well. In your original message you said, in this order:</p>
<p></p>
<p>- As our NCRA stated last week, their right of way running from Eureka to Lombard is classified as a "local railroad" line.</p>
<p>- The NWP freight portion of the RoW is a privately held company.</p>
<p>- SMART on the other hand is publicly financed by the tax payer of Sonoma and Marin County.</p>
<p></p>
<p>As near as I can tell, SMART is a special district composed of Sonoma and Marin Counties. I note the government board includes no representation from NCRA, nor can I find any evidence that NCRA has any ownership interest in SMART. My understanding of the history, both from having a front row seat to part of it and then an interested observer from afar, is as follows:</p>
<p></p>
<p>1. NCRA when created around 1989 was owned and managed by Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino Counties. In 1992 they purchased the NWP north of Milepost MP 142.5, which is a couple miles north of Willits. NCRA sets up North Coast Railroad to provide the freight operations. </p>
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<p>2. Sonoma County joined the NCRA ownership group in 1996, at which time NCRA purchased the line from Milepost 142.5 south to Milepost 68.22 in Healdsburg. </p>
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<p>3. At the same time as the transactions outlined in #2, the newly created Northwestern Pacific Railroad Authority- owned by NCRA, Marin County, and the Golden Gate Bridge District- purchases the line from Milepost 68.22 at Healdsburg south and east through Schellville to Lombard, interchange point with California Northern. NCRA receives a permanent freight easement over the NWPRA line as part of this sale. North Coast Railroad changes its name to Northwestern Pacific and commences operations over the entire length of the line. </p>
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<p>4. NWP service north of Willits ends due to storm damage in the first days of 1998, then the FRA issues its emergency order closing the rest of the railroad right around Thanksgiving 1998. By that point John Darling's Northwestern Pacific Railway Company LLC (NWPY) had some involvement as NCRA attempted to develop a public-private partnership. NCRA and NWPY worked together for a few years to get service restored on part of the southern end of the line in 2001, but operations only lasted a couple months before relationships broke down and NCRA removed NWPY from the property. </p>
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<p>5. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is created about 2002, and in 2004 it acquires the assets of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Authority, which is disbanded after the transaction. As I said above, I can't find anything supporting that NCRA has any ownership interest in SMART, as it would have lost those when SMART replaced NWPRA. That being said, NCRA very much did retain the permanent freight easement over SMART's trackage, and that's what gives them a seat at the SMART table today. </p>
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<p>6. NCRA selects the current Northwestern Pacific to be its new freight operator around 2006.</p>
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<p>To sum up...Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino, and Sonoma counties own NCRA. Sonoma and Marin counties own SMART, subject to NCRA's freight easement. SMART operates its own passenger trains on the line, while the privately owned NWP offers the freight service over NCRA's freight easement. The entire assembly of all of these companies, not including NWP's investments in equipment, has been and continues to be financed by some combination of Federal, state, and local tax dollars. NCRA by far has the least amount of direct public support, and finances itself largely on what revenues it can generate, but it is still very reliant on disaster relief funds from the Federal government. </p>
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<p>Jeff Moore</p>
<p>Elko, NV</p> My only point was a rail con…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-17:3290209:Comment:1937622019-06-17T19:34:06.070ZRichard Sotelohttp://nwprr.net/profile/RichardSotelo
<p> My only point was a rail connection to Corte Madera could be a real possibility down the road. If the land is there and the bridge over the creek is solid. Then the remaining doubt is whether the voters of Corte Madera have the ba... to ask for it. Engineers can do amazing things when so challenged. Even the bicycle ramp could be mitigated.</p>
<p> Thanks Jennifer, for the link to the report.</p>
<p>Richard S.</p>
<p> My only point was a rail connection to Corte Madera could be a real possibility down the road. If the land is there and the bridge over the creek is solid. Then the remaining doubt is whether the voters of Corte Madera have the ba... to ask for it. Engineers can do amazing things when so challenged. Even the bicycle ramp could be mitigated.</p>
<p> Thanks Jennifer, for the link to the report.</p>
<p>Richard S.</p> :-) You're most welcome, Jef…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-17:3290209:Comment:1935782019-06-17T17:49:32.033ZJenniferhttp://nwprr.net/profile/Jennifer
<p>:-) You're most welcome, Jeff!</p>
<p></p>
<p>:-) You're most welcome, Jeff!</p>
<p></p> Jeff:
I follow what you are c…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-17:3290209:Comment:1936632019-06-17T05:58:07.388ZRichard C. Brandhttp://nwprr.net/profile/RichardCBrand
<p>Jeff:</p>
<p>I follow what you are commenting to Emilio but I too fail to follow your logic. You write: "...be overlooking that the entire former NWP right-of-way is owned by the California taxpaying public in one way or another."</p>
<p>Yes we taxpayers in your neighbor state of Calif pay for many services but it does not entail that we tax paying public have ownership of state properties. NCRA has the legal title of what we speak of as the NWP right of way with full title south to…</p>
<p>Jeff:</p>
<p>I follow what you are commenting to Emilio but I too fail to follow your logic. You write: "...be overlooking that the entire former NWP right-of-way is owned by the California taxpaying public in one way or another."</p>
<p>Yes we taxpayers in your neighbor state of Calif pay for many services but it does not entail that we tax paying public have ownership of state properties. NCRA has the legal title of what we speak of as the NWP right of way with full title south to somewhere I have yet to find in Healdsburg. I've also come to learn from attending the SMART BoD meetings that SMART and NCRA are per SMART GM Mansouian, partners in the ownership of the line to Lombard.</p>
<p>I suggest you review the SMART BoD meeting videos to follow who is the owner.</p>
<p>Richard</p>
<p> </p> Responses to Richard and Emil…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-16:3290209:Comment:1936622019-06-16T17:32:46.498ZJeff Moorehttp://nwprr.net/profile/JeffMoore
<p>Responses to Richard and Emilio:</p>
<p></p>
<p>First off, to Richard. You say "As our NCRA stated last week, their right of way running from Eureka to Lombard is classified as a "local railroad" line. The NWP freight portion of the RoW is a privately held company...SMART on the other hand is publicly financed by the tax payer of Sonoma and Marin County. Neither Hopland nor for that matter Napa and the connection to Amtrak are located in these two counties. SMART running to either of these…</p>
<p>Responses to Richard and Emilio:</p>
<p></p>
<p>First off, to Richard. You say "As our NCRA stated last week, their right of way running from Eureka to Lombard is classified as a "local railroad" line. The NWP freight portion of the RoW is a privately held company...SMART on the other hand is publicly financed by the tax payer of Sonoma and Marin County. Neither Hopland nor for that matter Napa and the connection to Amtrak are located in these two counties. SMART running to either of these areas are not even a pipe dream UNLESS the state of California or the Feds will pick up the tab. With all due respect it is not a "mayors up north" question."</p>
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<p>I'm having trouble following your logic here, but you seem to be overlooking that the entire former NWP right-of-way is owned by the California taxpaying public in one way or another. SMART owns the line from Lombard to Healdsburg, NCRA owns the rest of the line north of Healdsburg. NCRA retained a permanent freight easement over the line now owned by SMART, and the present private NWP freight operations use this easement under arrangement with NCRA. As has been discussed here before, the NWP company is not required to pay rent for its use of the railroad until such time as its revenues exceed a certain threshold, which it is in no danger of crossing. That being said, NWP has fronted a large pile of money to NCRA through the years. And you are absolutely correct in that the state and federal governments will have to pick up the tab for any expansions of commuter rail service. </p>
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<p>Second, to Emilio...commuter rail is an awful lot like freight rail, in as much as you need enough volume in whatever corridor you are trying to serve to justify the service. Caltrans has available through their website various metrics on traffic volumes up through 2017 for each of the state's highways. I looked at Highway 101 data, which provides some interesting numbers. The section of Highway 101 between Larkspur and Santa Rosa- the SMART corridor- has annual average daily traffic counts (total vehicles over the counters in a year divided by 365) ranging from 93,500-209,000 cars, with peak hour volumes ranging from 7,700-16,800 cars (defined as the busiest average 60-minute period of time). It will be interesting in a couple years to go back through some of these numbers to see how much of a difference SMART is making. For comparative purposes, the same highway between Fortuna and the south end of Eureka has annual average daily traffic counts of 18,100-27,700 cars, with peak hour values of 2,000-2,900 cars except for Loleta Drive, which has a daily volume of 4,300 cars. Arguably the busiest stretch of Highway 101 north of Santa Rosa is the seven miles between Eureka and Arcata, and its average daily traffic counts are 34,300-36,800 cars (peak hour 3,900-4,300). Simply put, it's hard to see much justification for any sort of commuter rail operations outside of maybe the Arcata to Eureka corridor, and the local transportation agencies already have a healthy bus service covering that corridor. </p>
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<p>Jeff Moore</p>
<p>Elko, NV</p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> Emilio:
I seem to remember th…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-16:3290209:Comment:1938612019-06-16T06:38:29.170ZRichard C. Brandhttp://nwprr.net/profile/RichardCBrand
<p>Emilio:</p>
<p>I seem to remember than you reside outside of California. As our NCRA stated last week, their right of way running from Eureka to Lombard is classified as a "local railroad" line. The NWP freight portion of the RoW is a privately held company. </p>
<p>SMART on the other hand is publicly financed by the tax payer of Sonoma and Marin County. Neither Hopland nor for that matter Napa and the connection to Amtrak are located in these two counties. SMART running to either of…</p>
<p>Emilio:</p>
<p>I seem to remember than you reside outside of California. As our NCRA stated last week, their right of way running from Eureka to Lombard is classified as a "local railroad" line. The NWP freight portion of the RoW is a privately held company. </p>
<p>SMART on the other hand is publicly financed by the tax payer of Sonoma and Marin County. Neither Hopland nor for that matter Napa and the connection to Amtrak are located in these two counties. SMART running to either of these areas are not even a pipe dream UNLESS the state of California or the Feds will pick up the tab. With all due respect it is not a "mayors up north" question. </p>
<p>Are you willing to provide a portion of your Federal taxes to fund these connections? This is the state of the SMART problem today and in the future.</p>
<p>Richard</p> Thanks for the information Ri…tag:nwprr.net,2019-06-15:3290209:Comment:1937572019-06-15T22:02:19.484ZEmilio Galohttp://nwprr.net/profile/Theduckmstr1
<p>Thanks for the information Richard. I did not know that about Windsor, if only certain mayors up north in some certain county were feeling the same way about a possible commuter train. Possibly Eureka down to Fortuna?</p>
<p>Thanks for the information Richard. I did not know that about Windsor, if only certain mayors up north in some certain county were feeling the same way about a possible commuter train. Possibly Eureka down to Fortuna?</p>