SMART’s latest grant of $32 million gets passenger rail line closer to Healdsburg

SMART has raked in $221.6 million in federal and state funding since the end of 2021 to support the rail commuter line’s expansion.

September 25, 2023

Sometimes, to explain how Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will keep pushing north, Eddy Cumins refers to “puzzle pieces” that must fall into place.

Cumins, who took over as SMART’s general manager late in 2021, announced Monday that the agency had just secured another giant piece of that jigsaw — this one in the form of a $31.89 million federal grant.

SMART was one of six California agencies to receive funds from the Department of Transportation’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grant Program. Much of that money was made available by the August 2021 passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, President Joe Biden’s landmark climate and public works bill.

Some $28 million of that money will defray the cost of extending the SMART rail line 5 miles from Windsor to Healdsburg. The total cost of that section, the agency estimates, will be $160.5 million.

With this latest grant, said Cumins, SMART has now financed 65% of the Windsor-to-Healdsburg section — along with that segment of the bike and pedestrian path that will parallel the train tracks.

SMART also runs its own in-house freight rail operation, and will use the $4 million balance of the just-announced grant to replace older locomotives with newer models that emit far less particulate matter and other smog-producing ingredients.

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One critical piece of the remaining puzzle, Bagby and others point out, was securing the funds to construct the rail and accompanying pathway segment from Front Street to Bailhache Avenue in Healdsburg, including replacement of the bridge spanning the Russian River.

Funding for the span, which dates to about 1921, came through a $13.6 million earmark Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, secured in 2021 in the $547 billion House transportation bill.

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By:  Austin Murphy
Source: Press Democrat