Train service to Santa Rosa will be preserved, transit officials vow, even as they struggle with timing and financing of the Sonoma-Marin commuter rail plan.
Already, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit board is encountering a powerful political uproar over a revised timetable for rolling trains out of Larkspur in Marin County and at least as far as Petaluma by 2014 to take advantage of state toll bridge funding.
The major question is what becomes of Santa Rosa, the major city along the 70-mile route from Larkspur to Cloverdale. Because of money shortfalls, planners warned last week that service farther north would not begin until 2016, a two-year delay in the startup date promised to voters.
"A plan to build from Larkspur to Petaluma is untenable," said Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, the newest member of the SMART board, who believes Santa Rosa must be included in the initial startup. "The two transit hubs are San Rafael and Santa Rosa, - that is the key to meeting the transportation needs."
Jake Mackenzie, a Rohnert Park councilman and Metropolitan Transportation Commission representative, believes that getting additional federal funds will be difficult and agrees Santa Rosa cannot be left out.
"If there is not going to be service that covers Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Petaluma, then it will be a huge political problem," Mackenzie said. "There needs to be a re-examination of what the options are."
SMART director and Cloverdale Mayor Carol Russell said she would not approve any plan that doesn't guarantee service to all of Sonoma County within a reasonable time.
"This train is coming here or it is not going anywhere," Russell said.
SMART officials said they will know within a few months if the district will be in line for additional federal transit funds needed to address a $155 million funding gap, needed to build the second stage.
SMART will not do anything to jeopardize service to the corridor's largest city, Santa Rosa, said Lillian Hames, executive director.
If there is no assurance that the federal funds are available, Hames said SMART will have to consider something else, perhaps building an initial segment with different end points.
"My guess is you would build where the ridership was, you build where the people are who would ride it," Hames said. "That is central Sonoma County, that would include Santa Rosa."
Valerie Brown, a Sonoma County supervisor and SMART director, said the directors are trying to be flexible.
"We would not be following a responsible path if we did not look at all possibilities of funding," Brown said. "Our objective is to get something down and running."
The plan surprised Joan Lundstrom, the mayor of Larkspur, where the council had opposed the train running all the way to the ferry terminal.
"The EIR said 70 people would be coming to take the ferry a day," said Lundstrom, who was appointed by Marin's mayors and council members association to the SMART board last week. "As a City Council, we felt it made sense to bring a train to San Rafael and for a lot less money shuttle people who want to come to the ferry."
Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold, a SMART board member, said they need all the cost and ridership estimates before making a decision, but she too can't envision leaving Santa Rosa out of the initial startup.
"Our executive director has her staff working now on getting all that compiled, but certainly we know the density in Santa Rosa is huge and that would certainly be part of mix," Arnold said.
SMART had promised to have the 70-mile line open from Larkspur to Cloverdale by 2014, but the new strategy is a recognition that it doesn't have enough money.
The total cost is estimated to be $1.2 billion, including $500million to build the rail line and $90.6 million for an adjacent pedestrian and bicycle path.
The major sources of funding over 20 years include: the Measure Q quarter cent sales tax, $845.5 million, of which 60 percent is from Sonoma County; $31 million from Sonoma County's Measure M quarter-cent sales tax that is primarily for roads; $160 million in fare-box revenue, and $20 million from trackage fees and lease revenue from the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, which last ran in 2001.
SMART officials said the recession caused a 10 percent shortage of sales tax revenue and the bond market collapse has hurt the ability to sell construction bonds.
The strategy being explored is to begin building in Larkspur with a northern terminus in Petaluma, perhaps Rohnert Park and maybe Santa Rosa, depending on the cost estimates now being developed.
SMART believes that it needs to begin in Larkspur in order to use $35 million in state toll bridge money allocated for work between Larkspur and San Rafael.
Meanwhile, SMART has set up a meeting with MTC to request that SMART's unfinished segment, whatever it may be, be put on the MTC priority list for federal transit funds.
Hames said she believes the best chance of getting those federal funds for the second phase of construction is if the proposal includes service to Santa Rosa, the largest city in the corridor that has the highest ridership potential.
Debora Fudge, a Windsor councilwoman and chairwoman of the SMART board, said leaving the line's most populated city out of phase one was just a strategy being mulled in discussions over how to become competitive for federal dollars and not a set plan at this point.
Randy Rentschler, MTC's director of legislation and public affairs, said the MTC has two projects on the federal priority list - $1billion to extend BART to San Jose and another $1billion for a downtown San Francisco Municipal Railroad project.
It is unlikely the MTCwould add the SMART project, he said.
Being left off the priority list would likely alter how and where the line is run, Fudge said.
"We'll have to make new strategies based on which funding source we get," she said.
"If MTC doesn't support us on their list, then we work with them with regional money," Fudge said.
"Everything is in play right now," she said.
Longtime SMART critic Mike Arnold of Novato said not only is getting those funds doubtful, he believes SMART is underestimating the funding gap it has.
Arnold contends that SMART is mixing current and constant dollars in its funding forecast, the economists' equivalent of apples and oranges, and the actual shortfall is $225million.
"We have been saying for 10 years the quarter-cent sales tax is not enough," Arnold said. "They cannot build the system the voters voted on."
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or e-mail bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.
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