In the face of loosening pandemic restrictions and the upcoming change in its leadership, SMART has begun strategizing how to recover its lost ridership and further build out its rail and path systems despite financial setbacks.
The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District board voted unanimously Wednesday to dedicate more than $21 million in sales tax revenue in the next 10 years toward filling several gaps in its bike and pedestrian path in the two counties.
About $5.4 million would go toward leveraging grants to build a second Petaluma train station and begin funding a planned rail expansion to Healdsburg. In total, the $21 million in SMART funds could leverage another $48 million in state and federal grants, staff said.
General manager Farhad Mansourian, who announced his retirement Wednesday after 10 years with the district, said he sees these projects as a “celebration,” especially given the dire financial situation the agency faced in late 2019 and at the start of the pandemic.
“Look at today as a big deal,” he told the board.
About $7.3 million will go toward designing and permitting six path segments in Marin County spanning nearly 6 miles in San Rafael and Novato.
The Marin projects include:
- San Rafael:
- Smith Ranch Road to Main Gate Road — 2.7 miles
- Novato:
- State Access Road to the Highway37/Bay Trail — 1.4 miles
- Hannah Ranch Road to Vintage Way — 0.4 miles
- Vintage Way to Novato Circle — 0.6 miles
- Grant Avenue to Olive Avenue — 0.3 miles
- Olive Avenue to Rush Creek Place — 0.4 miles
Several other path projects in Sonoma County are also slated to be funded.
The funds are meant to get the projects to shovel-ready status but stop short of actually pouring concrete. Construction is not being funded because of a federal lawsuit filed by several Sonoma residents challenging SMART’s authority to build the path. The lawsuit threatens the future of the path project and could force SMART to pay millions of dollars to property owners where the path has already been built.
Building more paths while the suit is pending would be a “tremendous risk,” Mansourian said.
The lawsuit could take 18 months to resolve, time in which SMART can complete all the preliminary work needed to actually build the paths, Mansourian said.
Assuming SMART is successful in defending itself in the lawsuit and is able to secure grants, it could begin building the paths in 2023-2024.
Cycling organizations, including the Marin County Bicycle Coalition and the Transportation Alternatives for Marin, lauded the funding as a new commitment by SMART to complete the path — something they said was promised to voters when their sales tax was approved in 2008. However, they have urged the board to actually set clear goals for when the path will be built.
“The average SMART pathway user really only cares if she and her family can walk or ride on it,” Marin County Bicycle Coalition policy and planning director Warren Wells told the board.
The organizations also called for SMART to dedicate funds to complete path projects south of the Civic Center in San Rafael, such as the gap from Puerto Suello Hill to North San Pedro Road.
That section is not being considered by SMART, in part because of its steep terrain and also because there are road detours that cyclists can use, staff said. However, Mansourian said SMART could partner with other agencies and the city to fund a study on the benefits and drawbacks of such a path.
SMART board member Dan Hillmer, the vice mayor of Larkspur, stressed that these path projects would only be built if the agency is able to renew its main funding source, a quarter-cent sales tax. The tax is set to expire in 2029. An attempt to extend the tax for 30 years failed to gain enough support from voters in the March 2020 primary election.
As the economy reopens after more than a year of the coronavirus pandemic, SMART is exploring various marketing strategies and incentives to lure both former and new riders to use the 45-mile rail system between Larkspur and Santa Rosa.
Ridership has been slowly returning in the past few months, but is still well below pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic clipped SMART’s ridership growth, which was reaching its highest levels since it began service in 2017. In January 2020, it had about 2,800 passengers on an average weekday.
SMART ridership plummeted during the pandemic, but has slowly grown to about more than 500 passengers on some days as of March, according to the latest data. The decline resulted from several factors, including SMART halving the number of weekday trips and ending weekend service altogether, and the general apprehension of the safety of transit during the pandemic.
SMART communications manager Matt Stevens told the board that feedback from customers has shown a “significant pent-up demand for the restoration of weekend service” in recent months.
As to when weekend service could begin again, Mansourian had no set date but said it would only take one-week notice to restore weekend trains.
“I think the best answer I can give you is ‘soon,'” Mansourian told the board.
Other considerations have to be made, including the restoration of Golden Gate Ferry service in Larkspur, he said.
To bring back riders, the agency is exploring incentives such as free fares, television advertisements, partnering with notable local figures and businesses on social media and reintroducing the combined train and ferry fare promotion.
Several speakers and board members offered suggestions to improve the campaign, including potential connections to shuttles into wine country and shuttles to the Santa Rosa Airport.
SMART board member Kate Colin, the mayor of San Rafael, said any marketing should be a targeted effort, such as focusing on attracting former riders, rather than attempting several strategies at once and hoping some catch on.
“We’re not just wanting ‘likes.’ Likes are great, but what we really want are people back on the train,” Colin said.
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