Praise for SMART station locations

Due to my past obsessions, I would normally write a cynical or at least satirical comment on Novato’s political status quo, particularly with regard to rail issues affecting our community. But, alas, I am now compelled to be uncharacteristically complimentary because of the recent decision by the city council to formally designate our two SMART commuter rail station locations.

By locating our stations near Atherton/San Marin Boulevard on the north end of the city and Main Gate Road on the southern end, we will geographically unite most of our citizens in between. Many of us may have had good reasons for liking locations at Bel Marin Keys Boulevard next to the Humane Society or the historic old town rail station at Grant Avenue, but we elect leaders to make these difficult decisions, and today I am going to take cover behind them.

Council women Carole Dillon-Knutson and Madeline Kellner, as well as candidate Denise Athas, have all gone on record as strong supporters of a Grant Avenue SMART station. But SMART cannot stop for everyone, or it will never fulfill its mandate as a commuter express train and alternative to Highway 101. Santa Rosa has more than twice the population as Novato, but it only gets two stations.

However, there is hope that old town will be served by rail. One option might be for SMART’s mid-day and weekend trains to be more of a local service. Also, there could be regularly scheduled trains in our future that run between Santa Rosa and Sacramento, which could potentially stop in Old Town.

Novato strategically sits at the intersection of SMART’s eastern portal to Sonoma, Napa, and the interstate rail network. I believe both excursion and commuter trains will follow freight and come down Highway 37 to Novato in the very near future. Anyone who regularly fights the traffic along this corridor can appreciate this possibility. The notion of excursion trains serving Infineon Raceway and the Napa-Sonoma wine country, with connections to old town as well as the SMART network, also is very compelling – especially in the event your wine tour bus lacks a restroom. And if Port Sonoma fulfills its promise of a one-hour commuter and tourist ferry from San Francisco to the mouth of the Petaluma River, then a rail connection to Old Town could definitely be part of that.

Now for the difficult part: SMART likely has little interest and even less money to renovate its existing downtown train station property, let alone provide rail service to the east. The city also owns more property than it can currently redevelop. So who will step up?

SMART is likely to structure a very attractive lease with any developer to restore the historic station and perhaps include the rebuilding of the historic adjoining freight building. Here is a property that will be bisected by a 70-mile bike path, projected to get more than twice the traffic as the train. It is next door to the brand new Millworks project with hundreds of new residents and potentially thousands of Whole Foods customers.

Excursion rail passengers could disembark at the downtown depot. Politicians could even use the depot for whistle stop campaigns.

Let us hope our railroads end up helping stimulate more than just a nostalgic socioeconomic revival for main streets all across America.

Rail is green enough, SMART enough, and most people like it.

Barry Buckley