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Re: SMART to Sausalito
Author: Al Stangenberger
Date: 11-15-2016 - 17:33
If SMART wanted to extend to Sausalito via the Alto Tunnel, they would rebuild the track from Greenbrae to Detour, and there turn west to Larkspur and connect with the line to Alto tunnel at Baltimore Park.
The bridge at Greenbrae is gone, and there is some occupancy of the ROW just north of Detour, but looking at Google Maps the route would not be that hard to recover, given the amount of money typically spent on large public projects.
The biggest problem might be rebuilding the bike path which now occupies most of the route so that it would accommodate both the path and SMART. That would take money and political will.
There would also be resistance to rail through Alto and Mill Valley. I remember when rail transit in the area was being discussed circa 1970 there were a lot of NIMBYs were complaining about how the noise would disrupt Mill Valley's new middle school which had just been built on the site of the old city dump next to the NWP ROW.
SMART is going to have to get started and demonstrate its success before this could even be considered.
The bridge at Greenbrae is gone, and there is some occupancy of the ROW just north of Detour, but looking at Google Maps the route would not be that hard to recover, given the amount of money typically spent on large public projects.
The biggest problem might be rebuilding the bike path which now occupies most of the route so that it would accommodate both the path and SMART. That would take money and political will.
There would also be resistance to rail through Alto and Mill Valley. I remember when rail transit in the area was being discussed circa 1970 there were a lot of NIMBYs were complaining about how the noise would disrupt Mill Valley's new middle school which had just been built on the site of the old city dump next to the NWP ROW.
SMART is going to have to get started and demonstrate its success before this could even be considered.
