I always ask the students in transportation planning what George Washington did to make his money, and why was he the richest man in the colonies..... And, at great risk in these times, the usual answer is that he owned a plantation and slaves and was a planter...true, but that, all came from marrying a rich wife.... His real fortune stemmed from his "trade" as a surveyor of the plots of land he sold....

Transportation and access are keys to selling land and back when Washington decided to he wanted to develop the Ohio Valley, the best hub was where the Ohio began and became navigable... But, there was a problem, the French had claimed it an built a fort there, so he attacked it, started the 7 Years War (French and Indian to dumbed down American education, but actually the "first" global "world war") to get it... Well to make a long story shorts, the Brits wouldn't let George subdivide the Ohio Valley, so George Washington decided to set up his own planning commission and changed the zoning, and we call the result of Georges land dispute the United States of America....

RR's were built on land grants which were a win-win. Access made the land more valuable and paid for the RR. It surprises me not therefore, based on the dozens and dozens of developers I met in my career who had a stake in Santa Cruz County, or with Eureka South proposals.... Traffic congestion mitigation costs is driving some of that, and being able to offer better "quality" transit (meaning rail not a fricking bus) access, as an amenity is actually a marketing point in congested beach communities, as we have witnessed with Coaster and LOSSAN, and with significant high end residential condo developments at many of the Metro Gold Line Stations.

As to likely benefits and costs, for a built out properly scales operation, that remains to be defined better. Given the growth and often horrible local congestion, which has grown exponentially, on an inadequate largely formerly rural road network, over the last 30 years of my career, it seems that there might well be enough users, that the Santa Cruz branch could indeed produce significant potential local and regional transportation benefits. Based on other projects I've worked on, a high quality and properly scaled level of service, especially with "auto competitive" travel time regional and commute rail connections directly to San Jose, the East Bay, and Peninsula destinations could be a potentially very successful local passenger rail line.

Of course, I actually like trains.. And, I don't hate "evil" developers, or even that diverse set of folks who might like to ride trains...