As the train rested on new track, it became a magnet for the curious who stopped to take pictures and even selfies with the shiny green-and-silver cars. Hoping to build a connection with the community, SMART officials welcomed the public on board to check out the new cars.
“It’s beautiful, beautiful,” said David Cardenas of Mill Valley, who was driving along Highway 101 and got off the freeway to look inside the train. “I can’t wait to ride it. I didn’t think it would happen and here it is, and what a machine.”
Salamah Locks of San Rafael parked her car on Civic Center Drive and got out to take a look and was then invited inside.
“It’s a really nice interior, I’m impressed,” Locks said. “I’m looking forward to service. I’ll ride it.”
Remarkable return
That commuter service is returning to Marin is quite an achievement, said one transportation official.“It’s somewhat remarkable that it’s here,” said Randy Rentschler, legislation and public affairs director for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, as he toured the train. “They had rail here historically and they lost it and to put it back is not an easy thing. People probably don’t appreciate what it takes to re-establish rail and what this is and what it can be. Even big counties like Santa Clara have a hard time. They are getting BART there, but it was hard. There isn’t that population up here, but Marin and Sonoma are getting something that is usually reserved for bigger places.”
The initial phase will take passengers from San Rafael to Santa Rosa, but there is $20 million in the 2015-16 federal budget to complete construction of SMART’s rail extension from San Rafael to Larkspur.
If approved by Congress, the funding would come to the region as part of the Federal Transit Administration’s “Small Starts” grant program.
Beyond the rail, an adjacent bicycle and pedestrian path is part of the planned work.
“The bike path is important too and they are getting both that and rail, which is fantastic,” Rentschler said. “In some areas the rail is taken out and you have a nice path, but that’s it. That’s the case with the Iron Horse trail in the East Bay.”
Commuter rail vanished
As Marin grew, rail lines that once hauled goods out of and through the county saw a new cargo: people. In the late 19th century passenger service took people to Sausalito, San Anselmo, San Rafael and eventually Mill Valley, then the most populous cities.In the early 20th century the North Shore Railroad and later the Northwestern Pacific established inter-urban passenger service using a new technology. The system used electricity to power trains delivered by a third rail.
Sausalito, Belvedere, Greenbrae, Mill Valley, Fairfax, San Anselmo, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Ross, San Rafael, Lagunitas and Point Reyes were all eventually part of a rail and bus system that linked the communities. Novato — which was still largely agricultural and did not grow until after World War II — was absent. The trains eventually linked to ferries from Sausalito for commuters going to job centers in San Francisco and Oakland.
But as the 20th century progressed, the stature of the automobile grew. By the 1920s, roads were paved for automobile traffic and by 1929 work on a highway to traverse the county had started. A group called “Marvelous Marin” championed the goal of paving every road in the county.
And when the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937 people abandoned the trains and ferries in droves and began using buses and automobiles. Ridership dropped and the electric rail system shut down and was dismantled in 1941.
Marin misses out on BART
Two decades after the last commuter train rolled in Marin, plans for BART were mapped out.But dreams of BART in Marin unraveled in December 1961, when San Mateo County pulled out of the plan, saying costs were too high. With San Mateo out, the tax base to support the BART plan was weakened. Marin’s small population could not provide adequate tax to support the project, and it was asked to pull out.
But in the 1970s, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Authority and the Golden Gate Bridge district took control of the existing Northwestern Pacific Railroad right of way. It was turned over to SMART when the agency was established by the state Legislature in 2002.
That meant SMART’s biggest asset was in hand — the rail right of way, valued at more than $1 billion.
“North Bay elected officials and the bridge board played a huge role in getting that right of way for this moment,” said Denis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge district, after peering into the cab of the SMART train. “It was a significant step. And now we see the right of way with brand new ballast, concrete ties and welded track; it’s what BART wished they had.”
Rolling in Marin
County voters rejected rail tax measures in 1990, 1998 and 2006, but in 2008 approved Measure Q, a quarter-cent sales tax over 20 years to help fund the train.Now it’s reality.
The tracks between north Novato and Petaluma are being tested first. Six more train sets are expected to arrive every two months with service set to begin at the end of 2016. SMART has an option to buy more cars after the start date if the demand is there.
Rachel Schmuhl, the train engineer who piloted the cars to San Rafael last week, worked in Utah for six years before coming west.
“You always have to be cautious, you are watching everything,” said Schmuhl, who showed off her cab’s buttons, levers and controls to the curious. “The throttle controls everything. Our top speed will be 79 mph, but it went to 101 mph during testing. But 79 mph will be the limit and only between cities. The average is 40 mph.”
She couldn’t imagine a better job.
“I get to drive a train,” said Schmuhl, a former bus driver, with a laugh. “I asked my son, ‘what’s cooler to tell your friends, that I’m a train engineer or a bus operator?’”
©2015 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
