Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission negotiating with new Rail Operator
A new Santa Cruz branch rail operator has been named by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC), but not everyone is onboard.
The SCCRTC chose Progressive Rail Company, based out of Minnesota, as the new rail operator. This comes after the first operator, Iowa Pacific backed out.
The board heard several other proposals, but felt this was the option that made the most sense for the area. Santa Cruz County Supervisor Greg Caput says “We had to look at the assets and past performance of all of them and Progressive seemed to be at the top and that’s why we’re going forward with it. We do have a rail road track and we have to do something with it.”
Several Santa Cruz County residents spoke out today, some not in favor of the Progressive Rail taking over.
David Date, who has lived in the county for 10 years, says traffic has become a nightmare. “Over the last two or three years we’ve seen the transportation, what I refer to as a crisis, just exacerbate. So I altered my commute, I’ve had to leave after ten, now I leave after 11 and our daughter used to attend Tara Redwood School and we couldn’t get her to school on time so now we home school,” says Date.
Gail Mcnulty, executive director of Greenway Santa Cruz County, agrees. She says she’s done research on the new operator and doesn’t think they will have the communities best interest in mind, “I’m particularly worried about progressive rail coming to our community because progressive itself has major ties to the oil and gas industry.”
While the Commission has been talking about Rail and train options, Mcnulty says they are missing out on opportunities to find ways of helping solve the traffic problem. “We need to be looking at the potential highway solutions and also potential solutions for Soquel-Freedom, we need to be looking at bus options. We do believe there is a tremendous opportunity as well, if we build safe protected bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to get more people to choose that option and electric bikes as a way of transportation,” says Mcnulty.
The Commission says they are taking all of the concerns from the community seriously and will look into any dangers and the safety of what the rail would carry.
