Here is the story Sam.....This is like throwing meat to the lions!




Freight rail will return to Novato



Wednesday, April 25, 2007 2:13 PM PDT

Repairs to begin on tracks through city in the next two months



By Rob Mitchell Executive Editor



Freight trains may rumble through Novato again next year if track repairs go
as planned.



The North Coast Railroad Authority is close to starting $25.5 million in
repairs on the 62 miles of long-unused train tracks between Lombard in Napa
County and Windsor in Sonoma County.



"We're going to begin repairs within the next two months," said Mitch
Stogner, Executive Director of the NCRA. Trains will be running by about
this time next year, he said, operated by Northwest Pacific Railroad (NWP).

Once the tracks are brought to a federal Class III standard, meaning freight
can travel up to 45 miles per hour, the repairs will continue north to
Willits, another 62 miles. Reopening the line all the way to Eureka is a
possibility in the future, Stogner said.



The route has been closed since 1998, save for a nine month period in 2001,
Stogner said.



The tracks that will be repaired run roughly parallel to Highway 101 into
Novato, then take a turn east along Highway 37 through Black Point and into
Sonoma.



The NWP signed an operating agreement last summer with the NCRA, a public
agency, to operate rail freight on the tracks. The NCRA owns a permanent
freight easement on the tracks, which are in turned owned by a variety of
entities.



NWP will eventually pay the NCRA about $500,000 a year in fees, Stogner
said. Right now NCRA is receiving advance payments on the lease while the
repairs get underway.

"I expect to run about 2,000 carloads a year, five or 10 carloads per
train," said John Williams, CEO of NWP. "I'd expect to run a train in each
direction 3 days a week."



He said the trains will carry goods like lumber and grain that are currently
unloaded from trains in Lombard and shipped by truck to Sonoma.



The trains also might carry Sonoma County solid waste to Lombard.



"(Sonoma County) has been using Redwood Landfill and Marin would like Sonoma
County to go elsewhere," Williams said. If the waste doesn't travel by
train, it will have to go by the highway, he said. "So we think it's more
efficient and more environmentally friendly."



The track through Novato is part of a vitally important stretch of rail that
connects the north coast of California with the rest of the nation.



Ports in Oakland and Long Beach are stretched thin. An idea that Humboldt
Bay could become a new center for shipping in Northern California, taking
pressure off the more southern ports, and giving the north state economy a
shot in the arm.



That idea would be much closer to reality if there were a freight line
connected to the national rail system east of Novato, in Lombard, Stogner
said.



"Proposition 1B is key there because we're going to need significant public
dollars to fix the track north from Willits to Eureka," Stogner said. That's
another 192 miles of track, currently closed because of a landslide in the
Eel River Canyon, a geologically unstable area.



Proposition 1B, approved by voters last November, has $2 billion earmarked
for the "Trade Corridors Improvement Fund." It is this money that will
possibly pay for the far northern extension.



For now, Novato's leaders are working on protecting the City's interests. An
informational meeting was held between city, county and rail representatives
three weeks ago.

Novato is now requesting that two vacant spots on the NCRA board of
directors, which are allocated to Marin, be filled.



The NCRA was formed in 1999 to restore freight service to the railroad,
which operated through Novato since at least 1875. By 1898, the railroad was
shipping 500 to 1,000 pounds of cheese daily from Novato by train towards
San Francisco, according to the Novato History Museum.



Passenger service ended in 1958, but freight continued until 1998.



Who's been working on the rails:



. North Coast Railroad Authority



Was created in 1989 by the California legislature to ensure freight and
passenger train infrastructure in northern California. In the last year the
NCRA has won $42 million for track repair from Lombard to Willits, plus
almost $8 million more to study reopening the track north to Eureka.



. Northwestern Pacific Railroad



Last operated freight service in 2001; newly incorporated with renewed
mission. Will haul freight from national rail system in Lombard into Sonoma;
will also haul solid waste out