Re: Marin IJ Editorial on SMART
Author: Scott Schiechl
Date: 04-10-2008 - 13:54
Who prepared this draft EIR that suggests 16 trains a day with upwards of 60 cars each? Assuming that half of those trains are hauling empties, it means 480 revenue carloads per day! Its these kind of wild claims that are at the center of Novato's lawsuit. Does anyone seriously believe that that kind of traffic is at all likely? I ask this as someone who believes in the NCRA's efforts to restore freight service to the NWP. In its best days, did the old NWP ever run 16 freights through Novato? We need rational, sustainable arguments to restore the NWP and get SMART back on track. If folks at NCRA are serious about this level of traffic then they need to explain how they arrive at these figures.