(The following appeared on the San Jose Mercury News website on August 7.)
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — County transportation leaders announced today that they have struck a deal with Union Pacific to buy the 32-mile rail line between Davenport and Watsonville for $14.2 million.
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission is expected to take ownership by the end of the year, and eventually construct a pedestrian and bike path that would connect to Monterey County.
The rail line deal comes after commissioners signed a letter of intent in 2004 to pay $19 million for the Union Pacific property.
However, negotiations were stalled for years after a preliminary analysis in 2005 showed up to $16 million in repairs would be needed before the agency could build a hiking and biking trail along the tracks and potentially run passenger trains there. Of that, up to $9.6 million would pay to seismically retrofit the line’s 29 railroad bridges, or trestles, some more than 100 years old.