One factor to keep in mind, the RTC is not the final decider. If they do elect to go the railbank route they would still have to apply to the STB to formally abandon the line- actually their contract operator would have to do that unless they handled it as an adverse abandonment case- in order for railbanking/trail use discussion to even start. And there will be plenty of opportunities for others interested in maintaining rail service to buy the line or subsidize continued operations through the Offer of Financial Assistance process, and all of those must be extinguished before preserving the corridor as a trail becomes a possibility. SCBG (Santa Cruz, Big Trees & Pacific) could very well use this process to force the sale of at least the tracks they use to reach the boardwalk to them. If the trail is the outcome the board decides, there is still a long road to get there with the Federal regulatory structure greatly favoring continuing rail operations.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV