“David, that is why rail banking makes sense. Save it until we need to bite the bullet and put in a train. What’s wrong with that?
“If we don’t rail bank now, the County [of Santa Cruz, CA]Â will be forced to subsidize freight service by millions each year with infrastructure maintenance (as they did with Iowa Pacific) until the tracks can really be used in a cost-efficient way.
“Right now, the RTC [Regional Transportation Committee]Â is discussing spending $30M to upgrade the tracks to Class-2 (30 mph max) to support a freight train with no benefit to the County.
“Think about it, a commuter train needs Class-3 (60 mph), so the tracks would have to be torn out again and replaced whenever the County really needs a train in 30 years. The idiocy of this discussion within the RTC astounds me.
“So why not rail bank it and use it until needed?
written by Carey Pico — of Aptos CA
