The railroad will be rebuilt before this happens. In the late 1980's I was an ad-hoc member of the 101 Corridor Action Committee chaired by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in an attempt to preserve the NWP for transit. This was the beginning of SMART. They initiated several studies by Wilbur Smith and Associates (Transportation Planners) and one involved the scenario of abandoning the Eel River Canyon because of its high maintenance costs. The study showed because the Eel is protected under the Federal Gov't Wild and Scenic River Act that after they pulled the rails, they would have to fix the tunnels in order to maintain a maintenance road to keep debris flows and slides from fouling the river! Cost in 1988 dollars----a quarter of a billion dollars! This did not account for the yearly maintenance, only to restore the Canyon drainage and remove the rails. The RAIL TO TRAILS folks haven't got a clue~!