There are a lot more potential customers from Willits south than there are to the north - pipe dreams about container trains notwithstanding (who - even a politician - would spend billion$ to fix up NWP for doublestacks only to dump the containers onto Donner just like they would from Oakland in 1/3 the travel time?). A savvy shortline operator could probably make a go of the south end as long as a clean usable track to minimal freight standard (which is the best NWP had in the living memory of most of us - it's nothing like a main line) is provided, and under favorable circumstances might even make a calculable difference in truck traffic on 101. That's what the current public $$ would do as I understand it - get the far south end working again without any real expansion or improvement, then proceed north as funds allow as far as Willits. North of there is a REAL money pit where even repair/maintenance activity would have major impacts and makes little sense for anybody's money, public or private, desires of a potential quarry operator notwithstanding (would they pay for fixing it and running it?).

When I lived in the N.Bay NWP ran probably 10 trains or so a day (counting both directions) through Santa Rosa. Most of those were gravel trains from Healdsburg and lumber from north (often transloaded from trucks at Willits due to Canyon problems), with an occasional switcher wandering around. The lumber business is gone - face it - and so is the main reason for a through track to the north end. The gravel business ditto since they can't take it out of the river any more and trucks easily handle what's left. So you're left with a REAL potential for maybe 5-6 trains counting both directions doing local switching for loose-car runs up to maybe Healdsburg or Cloverdale, and possibly a garbage train or 2, unless the NCRA types have a wild south end industrial development scheme going that hasn't seen the light yet. Yes, they'd probably run at night (NWP usually did when I lived there), which is bad for noise if you're sensitive (I was about 2-3 miles from the track in Santa Rosa and practically never heard them, which is interesting because I was much farther from the tracks in Fresno but usually heard the trains clearly at night) but good for traffic (unless you're drunk and/or asleep approaching a grade crossing).

25-50 trains a day is a really wild dream - that's perhaps the theoretical capacity of a single-track non-CTC railroad, but it's hardly what the territory will support freight-wise in any foreseeable future. If that's the basis for wanting an EIR, it's hogwash. If NCRA really thinks they'll see that kind of freight traffic within their working lifetimes I want some of what they're smoking (or maybe not if the constabulary is nearby)!

I still like the bypass idea - what rail freight business is left in N.Marin anyway? - but yes it's crazy. ;-)