The No Way campaign describes tearing out the rails on the Santa Cruz Branch Line as a bad thing, a deceptive thing, an almost evil proposition.
It might be worthwhile to look at what we actually have in our rail transportation corridor.
According to the Union Pacific Track Charts, a rail-by-rail survey produced in 2001i , the Branch Line rails are “second hand”. This is not unusual for branch lines: rails from main lines are downcycled to the less profitable branch lines. These Track Charts give the age of each rail, under the heading of “Surfacing & Lining”. According to these charts our earliest rails date from around 1910, miles and miles from the nineteen teens, and the newest, a short stretch near California Street in Santa Cruzii, dated 1996. Even on newer bridge structures second-hand rails were used.
The Association of American Railroads says that “the lifespan of rail averages 50-60 years”iii. Our rails are older, mostly older than a century, and even they are secondhand. They are federally ranked “excepted track”iv. “Excepted track” is track that is limited to no more than ten miles per hour v. Keeping these failing rails will make for a long commute on the Coast Connect.
In 2018 the Regional Transportation Commission sponsored a speaker series called “Innovations in Transportation.” One of the speakers was Kurt Triplett, the City Manager of Kirkland WA. Kirkland had recently converted an unused rail line through railbanking to a greenway trail as an interim transportation solution. It is beloved by the community and embraced by the politicians.
In the question period following the presentation, RTC Commissioner Mike Rotkin opined that in order to preserve the transit option here we should “just leave the rusty old track that’s not going anywhere”vi. Triplett replied: “The wonderful thing about the interim solution is that it’s cheap and it’s cost effective and it’s quick. We did it really fast, and in fact, on the salvage part of the ties and the rails you actually make some money on the thing”.
“Just leave the rusty old track that’s not going anywhere” is not No Way’s official campaign slogan, but it is its result. It is inaction, a complete locally-originated climate cop-out. Railbanking, while it sounds passive, is our most assertive action to preserve our public transit options. If we do not railbank we threaten the integrity of the rail right-of-way and its continued public ownership.
We’re having an election because our local transportation politics is at stasis. We can wait even longer for a “someday” solution, or we can act on the immediately possible. The adage “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” is our way forward now.
Notes
i https://sccrtc.org/projects/rail/rail-line-purchase/rail-line-due-diligence/draft-santa-cruz- branch-line-structural-assessment/ Please see Appendix B. It covers the entire right of way in five mile increments.
ii https://www.google.com/maps/@36.9638163,- 122.0353767,3a,75y,196.4h,111.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sor0EevtTk01ERDrs7uqeLA!2e0!7i1 6384!8i8192
iii https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/brand-connect/wp/enterprise/ribbons-of-rail/
iv https://sccrtc.org › wp-content › uploads › 2011 › 07 › 100219-Prop116-STIP- FundsApplic.pdf Please look to page 6 in the downloaded .pdf
v https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-II/part-213/subpart-A/section-213.4 Please look to “section e”
vi https://sccrtc.org/meetings/speaker-series/ See third video: “Implementing Trail and Transit Corridors – Creating Community Connections, not Conflicts” at minute 30:40
Originally published In Good Times. May 4, 2022