SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission approved a new operator for the 32-mile Santa Cruz rail line that runs from Watsonville to Davenport, a plan that could be implemented once an ongoing study of the county’s rail line is complete.
The commission voted 8-3 in favor of the plan during its Jan. 18 meeting.
The RTC will now enter negotiations with Lakeville, Minn.-based Progressive Rail, Inc., which is expected to run the rail-freight operation centered in Watsonville.
But if the county ultimately decides to keep its rail after the study, the company could also implement passenger and freight rail service along the entire line, which would be renamed the Santa Cruz Scenic Railway.
This would include reinstating the Suntan Special, a tourist train that stops at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, but goes as far as San Jose.
Such service is billed as a way to relieve traffic congestion and boost tourism in Santa Cruz County.
The company has identified a warehouse at 880 West Beach St. in Watsonville to serve as a “transloading” facility.
In a service proposal to the SCCRTC, Progressive Rail said it hopes to increase exports of fruits and vegetables in refrigerated cars to the Midwest, and bring “proteins” on the return trip.
In addition, the company said it is better poised financially to make existing repairs to the tracks, bridges and trestles, and to keep it maintained into the future.
The company has projected $688,000 in gross profit this year, a number that jumps to nearly $8 million by 2022, which company officials say would come from running the scenic railway.
SCCRTC called the proposal a “moot point,” since any rail service will have to wait until damage from the 2017 storms is repaired. Those repairs are estimated to cost more than $2 million.
The idea of creating a rail system is a controversial one.
Greenway Santa Cruz County, which advocates converting the rail line into a pedestrian and bike trail, came to the meeting to speak against the plan.
In an interview Wednesday, Greenway Executive Director Gail McNulty said that the rail system was built as a freight line for a relatively small county, not as a commuter corridor or for pleasure trips.
“We are advocating against the rail plan because we believe it doesn’t make sense for a community our size,” she said.
Instead, McNulty said the money would be better spent improving the Santa Cruz Metro bus system, which she said currently needs 62 new busses.
That would be a boon for people who live in the San Lorenzo Valley, which would not benefit from rail service, she said.
“We really want what’s best for the entire county,” McNulty said.
The Jan. 18 vote came after the commission on Nov. 2 filed a notice of default against Iowa Pacific Holding, the company that formerly ran the line under the name Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railway Co.
In the filing, SCCRTC accused Iowa Pacific of failing to maintain the railways, bridges and other parts of the line, and of not paying more than $23,000 it owes for running the Christmastime Polar Express train. The commission also said that Iowa Pacific still owes the county more than $30,000 for storing railcars along the tracks.
In a letter dated Dec. 4, Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railway Co. President Edwin Ellis cited financial troubles and said that last year’s winter storms made running the Christmas train impossible.
The company still had five years left on a 10-year contract.
“I would suggest that the commission seek another operator,” Ellis stated in the letter.
