FUD Wrote:
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> Does SMART/NWP have any places in Petaluma or
> Santa Rosa for transload operations? THAT is the
> way you get freight traffic these days. Nobody who
> doesn't already have one is going to pay to
> install a switch and spur from PTC track, for a
> few cars a week. Using trucks for "local
> switching" though makes plenty of sense. See for
> instance Strasburg.
>
> Everybody (except maybe Brightline; we don't know
> about their whole operation yet but when running
> just the coast line they did lose money) loses
> money hauling passengers in the US. The best you
> can hope for is, perhaps, breaking even on
> operating expense (not including capital and even
> track maintenance). Losing money on freight is a
> different story, and if SMART is doing so there
> needs to be some reevaluation of the arrangements.

SMART has no transload facilities.The one facility in Windsor currently has no switch or track to it. This privately owned property charges a fee to trasload making it less advantageous to use rail.Trying to entice shippers to use rail is complicated by a less than eager Union Pacific connection. The reference to SMART losing money on their passenger operations is as seen from the voters point of view.While everyone in Marin and Sonoma county pays the sales tax to fund SMART a very small percentage of tax payers actually use it. It has poor bus scheduled connections and almost a half mile walk to the Ferry Terminal in Larkspur.