Commentary: Imagine what SMART Could do with the $11 Billion Caltrans Will Flush Away Widening State Route 37

In “Anatomy of a landslide,” Austin Murphy of the Press Democrat explores how voters in Sonoma and Marin overwhelmingly came out to support the SMART train, despite all the organized opposition:

That Secretariat-like margin was one of the more remarkable results from the North Bay’s June 2 primary election. With the win, SMART flipped the script from six years ago, when a measure seeking renewal of the sales tax was trounced. Needing a two-thirds majority, and up against a roughly $2 million anti-SMART campaign bankrolled by a wealthy local family, it limped in at 53.6%.

Of course, only with California’s cuckoo Prop. 13 tax law does 53.6 percent result in a defeat. Regardless, the overriding message is that a clear and ever-growing majority of voters in the North Bay want alternatives to driving. The SMART train and its parallel bike path are addressing that demand.

Meanwhile, the project to widen SR 37, which runs east-west across the North Bay, could ultimately cost taxpayers $11 billion and take decades to complete, as reported recently by the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Rachel Swan. SR 37 is no doubt familiar to regular Streetsblog readers: this is the freeway that is sinking and will likely be underwater sometime between 2040 and 2050—around when Caltrans finishes widening it.

That’s also about ten times the cost of building the 48 miles of the current north-south SMART train between Marin and Sonoma.

As the SMART train extension north from Windsor to Healdsburg continues, it’s important to remember there’s also an unfunded east-west SMART extension proposal. The 2019 study showed that such an extension, using new tracks on existing rights of way, would cost $780 million to $1.3 billion (between $1 billion and $1.7 billion in 2026 dollars). The difference depends on the desired speed and quality of service.

SMART already owns 25 miles of the route.

The study showed that “a rail connection between Novato and Suisun could provide much-needed relief to commuters that currently rely on State Route 37.” This option would also offer connections to Sacramento via Suisun-Fairfield Amtrak.

Bonus: given the inland routing, the rail corridor is less likely to be underwater.

The study primarily envisioned replacing the aged tracks and bridges to permit speeds around 60 mph. However, if the state spent the kind of money it’s happy to throw away on widening SR 37, they should have more than enough to double-track and electrify the whole system. That’s why Streetsblog used a rendering depicting electrification in the lead image; if the state has so much transportation money, why not go for 110 mph operations? That would help it compete with the door-to-door advantage of automobiles.

And while we’re at it, let’s look at restoring the rest of the North Bay railroad system, destroyed as part of the Roger Rabbit conspiracy.

The point is, the money to give the North Bay a world-class rail transportation network exists. It always has. California has too many leaders, unfortunately, who would rather waste billions on underwater highways and just hand-wave about the environment.