Long-awaited SMART line extension from Santa Rosa to Windsor back on track for completion after delays, funding shortfall

Windsor bike shop owner George Adair rode the southbound Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train Thursday afternoon from the northernmost Sonoma County Airport station to San Rafael to retrieve his car from the shop.

It cost him $7.50 — and was free for his 11-year-old son. And it took just under an hour.

The car trip back took about an hour and a half. The fare, he said, was cheaper than the gas to get home.

But Adair, who runs a branch of CrossCountry Mortgage and owns The Bike Shop in downtown Windsor, had to get a ride from his wife to the Santa Rosa stop. They ran into traffic and barely made his 12:45 p.m. train.

About two years from now, he’ll be able to walk directly from his business onto a SMART train, as the long-awaited 3-mile extension of service from Santa Rosa to Windsor moves forward.

Service in Windsor is expected to start in 2025, SMART officials told The Press Democrat on Thursday.

“We're estimating that in 2025, we're going to be able to begin passenger service to the town of Windsor,” said Julia Gonzalez, communications and marketing manager for SMART.

SMART, which launched service in 2017, was recently awarded $30 million as part of a state program aimed in part at reducing traffic congestion and improving climate resilience. Those funds are allocated for the Windsor extension.

About a third of the extension to Windsor had already been constructed since the project’s groundbreaking in 2020. Work was delayed, however, amid pandemic-era restrictions and a $35 million funding shortfall fueled in part by legal battles.

Originally slated for a 2021 completion and postponed multiple times, the project is now fully funded and construction will resume later this year, Gonzalez said.

The existing Windsor transit station will be the next stop on the line north of the current Airport Boulevard terminus.

Next up will be work on the extension from Windsor to Healdsburg — and ultimately to Cloverdale, the final destination on the 70-mile north-south line approved by voters in Sonoma and Marin counties in 2008.

Together, the Windsor and Healdsburg extensions are estimated to cost $230.5 million — or about $70 million and $160.5 million, respectively. The buildout cost of a parallel bike and pedestrian path planned as part of the rail line is included in those figures.

Previously, funds that had been tapped for the project from the 2018 voter-approved Regional Measure 3 were tied up due to a lawsuit from the anti-tax group, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

The California Supreme Court dismissed that long-running lawsuit in January, and Gonzalez said the transit district is expecting to receive a previously earmarked $40 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s regional transportation agency.

That money will fund the Healdsburg extension, but an additional $82.2 million is still needed for its completion, Gonzalez said.

The timeline for the Healdsburg extension and buildout of the line up to Cloverdale are still to be determined.

California’s recently updated rail plan, published in March, envisions SMART’s north-south buildout as part of “an integrated, cohesive statewide rail system that offers efficient passenger and freight service, supports California’s economy, and helps achieve critical climate goals.”

SMART’s main source of operational funding is the quarter-cent sales tax approved by Sonoma and Marin voters 15 years ago. Fare revenue is another source.

SMART also oversees freight rail traffic in the region.

2023 California State Rail Plan

Expansion of the passenger rail system has been geared especially to ease traffic along clogged sections of Highway 101.

Adair said traffic has improved since the highway expanded to three lanes in Santa Rosa in the early 2000s, but taking the highway from Petaluma to Novato has been a nightmare for decades.

That’s likely to continue, he said, until the Marin-Sonoma Narrows project is completed — which is set for summer 2025, according to Caltrans.

“I do think SMART is a great alternative for commuters that have to go from Sonoma County to Marin and back,” he told The Press Democrat as he rode the train Thursday.

Students are another key ridership group for the North Bay line, and not just college students, Gonzalez said.

“It’s a lot of K-12 students who use the train,” she said, noting the ease of travel to after-school practices or part-time jobs.

The transit agency is poised to evaluate how to better align its schedules with those of area schools, she added.

The recent $30 million granted to SMART is part of a statewide, competitive program that provides funding to “achieve a balanced set of transportation, environmental and community access improvements to reduce congestion throughout the state,” according to the state’s website.

Buildout of the line’s adjoining bike path also is set to proceed, Gonzalez said. Construction delays and funding woes have also hit that portion of the project, with about a third of the 70-mile path completed by 2021.

Adair said launching a bike ride from Windsor is an excellent option, as it’s a gateway to the region.

A big frustration, though, is how long the overall rail project has taken.

“It's unfortunate that Healdsburg and Cloverdale are so far off,” he said, “because I do think SMART is a great way to get people to or from the various cities along (Highway) 101.”

Kathryn Styer Martínez is a reporting intern for the Press Democrat. She can be reached at kathryn.styermartinez@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5337.