SMART providing free service on Thanksgiving through Dec. 1

SMART will offer free rides for all passengers during limited service on Thanksgiving and through the holiday weekend.

The four-day period through Dec. 1 will feature free rides on five southbound trains and five northbound trains along the system’s 43-mile line from San Rafael in the south to the northernmost station near Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport. The first southbound train from the airport station is scheduled to depart at 10:13 a.m. and the last at 7:23 p.m.

The first northbound train from the San Rafael Transit Center is scheduled for 11:52 a.m. and the last at 8:50 p.m.

The full schedule is available at the Sonoma-?Marin Area Rail Transit website: sonomamarintrain.org/schedules-fares.

SMART previously offered free service for 10 ?days earlier this month to help residents of Sonoma and Marin counties affected by the Kincade fire and repeated PG&E power shut-offs. Rides were also free for military veterans and all active-duty military with identification, plus their families, for the Veterans Day holiday.

SMART plans to launch service to its new 2-mile extension between San Rafael and Larkspur in mid-December, but has yet to announce an opening date. Limited weekend service to the rail agency’s other new station, in downtown Novato, may also begin in December, before expanded weekday service starts Jan. 2.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.