Sonoma-Marin train line debuts Larkspur Station and easier trips to and from city
The first train pulled into Larkspur Station as dawn broke through the fog-shrouded hills Friday — a hard-fought victory for Sonoma Marin-Area Rail Transit.
Service to Larkspur is scheduled to begin on Saturday, but SMART dropped off 100 early-morning commuters at the new station on Friday, allowing them to christen the newly retrofitted tunnel through Cal Park Hill, and the canopied platform at Larkspur Landing Circle.
Another train left the station shortly after 2 p.m., bound for the Sonoma County Airport.
It’s a big day for “the spunky little railroad that keeps growing,” said Chad Edison, deputy secretary for the California State Transportation Agency. He stood hours later at a podium lined with poinsettias and Christmas wreathes, where reporters, North Bay politicians and train buffs gathered to celebrate the opening.
The new end of the line means one fewer transfer for commuters who travel daily from homes in Sonoma County to jobs in downtown San Francisco. Since SMART opened two years ago it’s dropped passengers off at the San Rafael Transit Center, where they scurry across the street to catch a bus across the Golden Gate Bridge. Starting Saturday, they’ll have the luxury of riding to downtown Larkspur, crossing a pedestrian walkway that arches over Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and catching a boat to the Embarcadero.
At least 100 people gathered for the ribbon-cutting on Friday, which featured a forest green holiday express train, plates of crackers, truffles and dried fruit, an hour of speeches by politicians and transportation officials, a brass band, and a celebratory procession downtown.
Stretching this last 2.1 miles from San Rafael wasn’t easy, assured San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips, who also chairs SMART’s board of directors. It took 100,000 hours of contractor time, 32,000 feet of track and 500 cubic yards of concrete — at a cost of $55.4 million.
Beloved by commuters, but beset by mounting costs, the $600 million SMART line is still trying to prove its worth to residents of Sonoma and Marin counties. Last month, the board approved a quarter-cent sales tax extension for the March 2020 ballot, which would provide vital nourishment as the agency struggles to extend its railway to Cloverdale and complete a pedestrian bike path that it promised to build when voters passed the original tax measure in 2008.
Local congressional representatives also will push for more federal funding, said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.
“I’ll keep slogging ... to make sure federal funds keep coming our way,” Huffman pledged. “We’re gonna keep going all the way to Cloverdale. We’re going to make sure the bicycle and pedestrian part of this coalition gets everything they need and deserve as well.”
General Manager Farhad Mansourian struck a defiant tone.
“We will not be deterred by naysayers,” he insisted.
Mansourian noted that in the two years since its genesis, SMART has liberated many from Highway 101 and congested local roads. The trains run alongside a painfully bottle-necked section of 101 called the Marin-Sonoma Narrows, where the freeway shrinks from four lanes to two. When passengers whoosh by during rush hour and see cars marooned in traffic, they sometimes clap.
Yet the new Larkspur Station provides many benefits besides convenience. Officials note the importance of getting cars off the road to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a critical problem in California.
To Larkspur Mayor Catherine Way, SMART could be an economic catalyst. Besides carrying North Bay commuters, it also sends tourist into the Wine Country on the weekends.
She urged them to stop and enjoy her city’s many attractions: an Italian pastry shop, an Art Deco movie theater, trails to Mount Tamalpais and canyons with waterfalls.
“This is not the end of the line,” Way boasted, “this is the beginning of the line.”
Riders, likewise, seemed pleased. Among them was Greg Neichin of San Anselmo, who brought his 5-year-old son, Max.
“We ride for fun up to Petaluma,” Neichin said. Max, who is obsessed with trains, was wearing a green SMART beanie.
Matt Weeder, who works at a nearby bicycle shop in Larkspur, said he’ll start taking his 4-month-old daughter on trips to Sonoma County. Weeder totes her around in a sturdy cargo bike that he can park on the train.
Would he support the sales tax extension? Well, sure, Weeder said. He’s a bit disenchanted that it’s not a gasoline tax, which would fit the philosophy of swapping cars for mass transit.
“But you have to pay for the train somehow,” he acknowledged.
By: Rachel Swan
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
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