Many in the community are aware of plans by the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) to establish some form of passenger rail service alongside a trail which will form the backbone of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network. A lot of folks in the community feel that passenger rail service is neither feasible nor a desirable project, especially given the multi-hundred-million dollar cost to establish rail service when existing transportation systems are already badly under-funded.

TrailNow is a local grassroots political action committee whose goal is to establish a “world class” pedestrian and bicycle trail in the Santa Cruz Branch Line rail corridor in the next several years. Their goal is to have the tracks removed entirely to make way for a broad dual-mode (pedestrian, wheeled vehicles) path through the key 12-mile stretch of the corridor from the city of Santa Cruz to Manresa Beach.  One of the founders of TrailNow, Brian Peoples, recently made a presentation detailing the organization’s objections to the RTC’s vision for rail service in Santa Cruz county.

Watch the TrailNow Presentation Video

There are of course fierce advocates for passenger rail service in Santa Cruz county, many of whom have disputed some of the information in the TrailNow presentation above and in fact have created a web site highlighting what they consider to be the inaccuracies.  For a broader context, please see below for additional articles we’ve posted over time about the rail corridor, especially our interview with former supervisor Ellen Pirie.

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