State legislators want to muffle worries that freight train service will rattle Novato by providing $1 million for "quiet zone" improvements.
A last-minute change to a state Senate bill would require the North Coast Railroad Authority to spend $1 million on safety improvements enabling trains to pass rail crossings in Novato without sounding their horns.

Assemblymen Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, engineered a change in the bill that provides the railroad with $5.5 million in state funding for environmental cleanup work, repairs and administration.

Huffman said the "quiet zones" have to be in place before freight starts rolling again on tracks through Novato.

"Honestly, I think this is good for freight," Huffman said. "It takes away a lot of the opposition."

Huffman and Leno are members of the Assembly budget committee that voted on the bill, Senate Bill 861, and amendments on Tuesday.

The reallocation of reserves from 2001 federal transportation funds designates money for the "quiet zones." The bill, written by Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, originally earmarked the money to clean up polluted soil and debris at old railroad yards.

The bill is the rail authority's second attempt


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to win state approval of its proposal to keep rather than repay $5.5 million that it borrowed from a federal transportation fund.
The authority oversees the rail line that stretches from Larkspur to Arcata. It shares responsibility with the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Authority for the stretch from Cloverdale to Larkspur, on which SMART wants to run commuter service.

The authority is planning to revive freight service between Windsor and Novato, allowing a private operator to use the tracks to carry garbage, rock, wood and other material from Sonoma County to Novato, then east to Napa County.

Mitch Stogner, the authority's executive director, said he has not yet seen the final draft of the legislation, but added his agency could probably live with the changes.

"That seems to be a reasonable compromise," he said.

Most of the authority's cleanup work is between Hopland in Mendocino County and Eureka, Stogner added.

The bill, with amendments by Huffman and Leno, was approved on a 12-5 committee vote. Its next stop is the Assembly floor and then back to the Senate.

Huffman, who has supported rail as an environmentally friendly alternative to cars and trucks for moving people and goods, added that one of the amendments spells out a requirement that a thorough environmental report be completed before the authority extends service north to Eureka.

Leno called the "quiet zone" funding, environmental requirements and advancement of the bill "a win-win."

Local officials welcomed the amendments.

Novato Councilman Jim Leland, a rail authority board member, said the changes will ensure that safety improvements are made before freight service resumes.

"Without the changes Mark and Jared made, there would be no funding for quiet zones," he said.

Leland has been critical of freight plans and says he still has reservations.

Lillian Hames, SMART's project director, said that "any additional funding that goes for quiet zones is good."

SMART's commuter train has raised similar concerns regarding noise at crossings.

Of the eight or so crossings in Novato, those that cross Olive, Grant Avenue and Hamilton's streets are among the top candidates for quiet-zones improvements, she said.