Rail Trail underway, some argue there’s not enough space

Getting more cars off the highway is a common goal in Santa Cruz County. But HOW is where things get a little blurry.

One option is the Rail Trail, a $121 million project that will go 32 miles from Davenport to Watsonville.

“Anybody that tries to get around the county knows we have a transportation problem and what the Rail Trail will do is it will take thousands of people off the highways and put them on bicycles to get around the county,” Santa Cruz Land Trust Deputy Director Steven Slade said.

The Rail Trail will have a minimum eight ft. wide path with two ft. shoulders on each side. But some members of the organization Trail Now say that’s not enough space.

“We believe in just one single trail,” Trail Now Executive Director Brian Peoples said. “A world class trail that will be 30 ft. wide which separates bicyclists from pedestrians.”

Trail Now says if they recycle the tracks, they could get $1.5 million and would use that toward making a walkway. Right now you can find people using the train tracks as a way of getting around town.

Peoples said he doesn’t see how Land Trust plans to incorporate a trail next to the 20 or more Trestles throughout the county.

“We have these little trains that they may be operating like Roaring Camp, but that’s not why we bought this property,” Peoples said. “The tax payers bought it to improve our mobility, not for another amusement park ride like the boardwalk.”

Rail Trail advocates say in regards to doing a trail without the rails… that train has already left the station.

A quarter of the project is already funded, and people can plan to walk on a trail from the Wharf to Davenport by the end of 2017.

“It’s too late, and what’s exciting is within two years… the fruits of all of that planning and work and to be able to get out on our bikes and just walk and take our kids in strollers,” Slade said. “It’s gonna be fabulous.”

Until then, walking on the tracks is how some people will continue to get around.