(The Napa Valley Register posted the following article by Kevin Courtney on its website on April 23.)
NAPA, Calif. — The cost to establish passenger rail service between the Napa Valley, Fairfield/Suisun and Vallejo is a staggering $216 million, a feasibility study concludes.
Because of the large start-up cost, passenger rail would likely require voter approval of a sales tax increase, Mike Zdon, executive director of the Napa County Tranportation Planning Agency, said Tuesday.
The Napa Valley hasn’t had a passenger rail link to Vallejo since before World War II when an electric line was dismantled. As highway congestion increases, transportation planners believe the need for rail travel may return.
For $216 million, Napa Valley residents could have hourly service connecting them to the ferry dock in Vallejo and the Capitol Corridor trains that run through Suisun to Sacramento and San Jose, according to a study by R. L. Banks & Associates Inc. of Tiburon.
The service would primarily attract commuters — up to 1.77 million annually — plus another 126,000 tourists. To be competitive with cars, diesel trains would average 45 mph. The trip from St. Helena to Vallejo would take nearly an hour.
Armed with new facts and figures, each community now needs to weigh the benefits versus the costs of resurrecting the passenger train, Zdon said.
In Napa County, train service could be a way of taking traffic off Highway 29 and Silverado Trail, Zdon said. With widening of Jamieson Canyon Road to four lanes being delayed, train service might lessen congestion on that commuter corridor, he said.
It’s possible to launch a single line — Napa to Vallejo, say — with expansion to a fuller service occurring as money and ridership increase, he said.
The study rejected only one link — St. Helena to Calistoga — as unfeasible because of the huge cost of buying back the right of way between those two Upvalley cities. That one section could cost $36 million to $116 million, with little ridership.
The right of way for the rest of the system mostly exists, with freight trains and Napa Valley Wine Train using it daily. Upgrading track to handle faster passenger trains would be a major capital cost.
Small sections of new track would also be needed at the Vallejo ferry and as a detour around the Napa Pipe plant in Napa.
While the proposed system would not be as cost-effective as other passenger rail operations in California, the cost per passenger mile would not be that much higher, the study said.
According to R. L. Banks & Associates, there is no rule of thumb as to whether a rail system is economically feasible. Often it comes down to a community setting its own transportation priorities.
If Napa had a transit system that included rail, this would shape future housing and business planning near downtown, Zdon said.
Building a comparable regional bus system would cost only 10 to 20 percent as much as rail, the study said. However, the reality is that commuters and tourists will not ride a bus as easily as they will a train, according to the consultant.
“The tough nut to crack is the capital costs — the $216 million,” Zdon said. Funds are available to handle operating subsidies, which would range from $3.6 million to $5.9 million per line annually, he said.
While federal and state grants are available for new transit operations, they generally require a community to pay 20 to 40 percent of costs, he said.
For Napa County to do this, voters would likely have to pass a half-cent sales tax increase. Over 25 years, this would raise $325 million.
Typically, new revenues would be divided equally between highway projects, road maintenance and transit projects such as bus and rail, he said.
The Napa County Transportation Planning Agency, which commissioned the $450,000 rail study with the Solano Transportation Authority, may poll county residents about how they would view a sales tax increase for transportation, Zdon said.
Raising the sales tax could speed up the $109 million highway expansion in Jamieson Canyon and two interchanges priced at between $50 million and $60 million each at Highways 29 and 221 and Highway 29 at Jamieson Canyon, Zdon said.
These three projects could linger for years, given the state’s budget woes and the lack of matching local money to spur them to completion, he said.
John Clifton, a rail advocate who lives in Napa, said he was disappointed by the report’s high cost for passenger rail. He is skeptical that the money can be found.
A more practical approach, Clifton said, would be to establish a slower interim service that used existing track. Such a service could be gradually expanded as money and need increased, he said.
Joe Potter, a St. Helena council member who serves as president of the Transportation Planning Agency, said the study proved the potential of passenger rail. Now the question is desire and funding, he said.
As traffic on Jamieson Canyon gets worse, “perhaps it will make the alternative more attractive,” he said.
Based on community workshops, the consultant said Napa and Calistoga residents generally favored new passenger service to bring tourists to their downtowns.
St. Helena, in contrast, was opposed to tourist service, but liked the idea of Upvalley workers using rail to get to jobs.
The study recommended major train stations, with parking and bus connections, in downtown Napa, the Vallejo ferry and the Fairfield/Suisun Amtrak station.
Basic commuter stations were proposed for American Canyon, Napa Valley College, Highway 29 at Trancas Street, Yountville and St. Helena.
The Transportation Planning Agency is trying to find a new location for a bus terminal in downtown Napa that could also serve future train service and act as a transit hub for tourists arriving by car.
The most likely location is somewhere in the triangle formed by Soscol Avenue and Napa Valley Exposition between Third and Sixth streets, Zdon said. The agency has had tentative talks with several landowners, he said.
Vincent DeDomenico, owner of Napa Valley Wine Train which runs meal trains between Napa and St. Helena, said he would be happy to work with local officials to establish regular passenger service.
Given the difficulty of getting voter support for a sales tax increase, DeDomenico said it could take a while before the first commuter trains were running.
“All these things take time. Flood control took many years. At some point you have to do it. These highways are getting worse and worse,” he said.
The consultant stressed the need to preserve the right of way even if passenger rail is not started anytime soon. Loss of right of way, as occurred between St. Helena and Calistoga, can eliminate future rail options.
Right of way would be threatened if a current freight operation ceased and the right of way were put up for sale.
A community forum on the rail study was held in Napa Monday night, attracting two dozen members of the public. A second forum will be held tonight at 6 p.m. at the Suisun City Hall, 701 Civic Center Blvd.