SMART needs to keep up momentum and work with NCRA

The news for SMART has gone from bad to disastrous, and the board wisely settled Saturday for its best alternative.

Last year, the rail authority was facing a shortfall of roughly $155 million to build the commuter rail line from Larkspur to Cloverdale. Now the funding gap, due to shrinking sales tax revenue, changes in the bond market and rising construction costs, is closer to $350 million.

When the quarter-cent sales tax was approved for SMART in 2008, the plan was to have the 70-mile line, with 14 stations, completed by 2014. On Saturday, the board's options were neither attractive nor popular. But given the fiscal realities, no one should be surprised that SMART directors opted to start with service between Railroad Square in Santa Rosa and San Rafael, with plans to extend farther north and south as soon as 2016.

SMART director Charles McGlashin succinctly summarized the problem and the solution at Saturday's special board meeting. "No one saw the tsunami that headed our way," he said, "and I am saddened that we can't do the whole magilla, but we have to get something going."

The outcome is bad news for residents awaiting rail service in Windsor, Healdsburg, Larkspur and, perhaps most especially, Cloverdale, where a still-unused passenger station stands as a monument to the city's patience. Cloverdale residents showed their disappointment Saturday with signs reading "No Taxation without Transportation."

Some brought back the idea of postponing construction of the pedestrian and bicycle path alongside SMART, as was recommended by the Marin County grand jury this summer. But the problem is far more significant now. Putting off the bike path would only address about 25 percent of the current shortfall.

Another possibility was to postpone construction altogether until alternative funding sources can be identified and a new plan to build the entire commuter line at one time is developed. But that would only make sure no one gets service first, and it could complicate efforts to secure additional funding.

Above all else, SMART needs to maintain momentum, to take advantage of today's favorable interest rates and the eagerness of construction crews to work - and to move forward. For this reason, we support the decision to begin construction in phases.

We also encourage SMART to work with the North Coast Rail Authority in allowing freight trains to begin running on the rail line as soon as possible.

The NCRA has invested more than $50 million - most of in in taxpayer funds - to repair the tracks after flooding years ago. NCRA officials claim they're ready to go. All they need is to have the Federal Railroad Administration inspect the tracks, but to do that they need the approval of the SMART board. So far SMART is resisting.

Most of the problems between the two agencies, it seems to us, have more to do with mistrust and miscommunication than safety or anything else.

We recognize that having freight cars on the line may make it more difficult for SMART to work on the tracks, bringing them up to standards needed for commuter train service. But this kind of work occurs all over the nation without the need to shut down rail lines. Furthermore, the NCRA expects to run about three trains a week at the outset - trains that take carbon-spewing trucks off the road.

SMART would not be giving up control. The rules of the rail line are clear, that freight service is subordinate to passenger service. Once the SMART train is up and running, SMART will have dispatch responsibility and will have control, for the most part, over when freight trains run.

But, in the meantime, freight service should not have to wait for SMART to be running before it can begin. Because it's now anybody's guess when that will occur.