SMART announces temporary station closures. Here’s where and why

As construction continues on Petaluma’s newest train station, transit officials have announced the partial closures of five Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit stations over two weekends in March and April to allow for key work to be completed.

The weekend closures are scheduled for next Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, as well as April 13 and 14, and will impact service to the five SMART stations north of Petaluma: Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, Santa Rosa North, Santa Rosa Downtown, Rohnert Park and Cotati.

All stations between downtown Petaluma and Larkspur will operate normally, according to a news release.

The closures are tied to construction of the commuter rail line’s latest addition, the Petaluma North station, which has an expected December 2024 opening.

During the first weekend of closures, which are subject to change due to weather, construction crews will install a “gauntlet track,” which will allow freight trains to travel through the station at a safe distance from the platform, said Julia Gonzalez, SMART’s communications and marketing manager. All SMART stations north of Highway 37 have gauntlet tracks installed, she said.

Construction crews will be “working around the clock” between March 22 and March 25 to minimize disruption, Gonzalez said.

During the second weekend of closures, crews plan to reconstruct the railroad crossing at N. McDowell Boulevard between Southpoint Boulevard and Petaluma Way. Along with the five northern train stations, that stretch of Petaluma roadway will be closed from 10 p.m. April 13 to 5 a.m. April 15. Details on a road detour will be announced closer to the construction date.

During that period, crews will also extend a segment of the SMART bicycle and pedestrian pathway from Southpoint Boulevard in Petaluma to Main Street in Penngrove, resulting in a 4.25-mile pathway from downtown Petaluma to Penngrove.

SMART leadership opted for a partial line closure for the two weekends instead of establishing a connecting bus route between Cotati and the downtown Petaluma station because doing it that way was “deemed impractical,” Gonzalez said.

According to the news release, busing riders “would have resulted in a lengthy bus detour for SMART riders and impacts to the train schedule.”

SMART encourages riders on those weekends to begin their southbound journeys from the Petaluma Downtown station, which offers free parking, as do the Novato San Marin, Novato Downtown, Novato Hamilton and Larkspur stations.

SMART currently operates 12 stations extending from Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in the north to Larkspur in the south, with stations planned for Healdsburg and Cloverdale. The Windsor station is also under construction and expected to open in spring 2025.

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or jennifer.sawhney@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.