SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Bridge replacements or repairs for a proposed commuter rail service in Santa Cruz County could cost almost $1 billion, a consulting firm has determined.
The news site Lookout Santa Cruz reports staff from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and engineering firm HDR Inc. told a meeting this week that 28 bridges would likely need replacement and another five would need strengthening for the Zero Emission Passenger Rail and Trail Project. That proposal calls for rail service on 22 miles of a former Southern Pacific branch line between Santa Cruz and Pajaro, Calif., just south of Watsonville, as well as 12 miles of a parallel trail.
Sixteen wood bridges are among those that would need replacement; total cost for replacement or repairs is estimated at $980 million. Commission staff had previously recommended replacement of 23 bridges.
The bridge estimate is part of ongoing work on a report to fully define the rail project, known as a project concept report, that the commission agreed to fully fund in summer 2023 [see “Santa Cruz commission approves …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 16, 2023]. That report was originally scheduled to be completed this spring, but the commission has pushed back release until the fall, saying it needs more time for engineering work and community engagement.
The rail proposal has long been highly divisive in the Santa Cruz area, with nearly equal support for the rail project or a trail-only alternative.
Kansas City’s free streetcar line between the riverfront and Union Station has been a success with spinoff developments. Construction is underway on an extension south to the Country Club Plaza area and the University of Missouri Kansas City campus.
If the project didn’t call for zero emissions (in and of itself a pipe dream), how many of the bridges would need replaced?
Presumably the same amount. I don’t think ZE passenger rail vehicles are significantly heavier than diesel ones. And I suspect they’ll want the bridges strong enough to support potential freight operations too (remember that the Roaring Camp’s Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific connects to this line in Santa Cruz).
It might be “zero emission” but it sure ain’t zero dollars. Who is going to ride this to cover the even the tiniest fraction of capital cost and operational expenditures? (And by the way, the construction equipment to build this billion dollars of capital infrastructure also is far from zero emissions.
Seeing the big trouble the Chicago METRA is in, who in their right mind thinks these low-density start-ups can make a go of it? METRA with its frequent four car, six car, seven car trains carrying hundreds of passengers sits just this side of BK.
There’s a lesson in Milwaukee’s moronic trolley. The only way to get anyone to ride these “feel-good”, “virtue signaling” transit services, is to give away rides for free, no fare. Farebox recovery of zero.