Mythbusting the Rail and Trail Project of Santa Cruz County

On this episode of Talk of the Bay, with host Meilin Obinata, guests James Weller, a land title expert and Barry Scott a clean energy educator bust the latest myths and misunderstandings regarding the Rail and Trail Project of Santa Cruz County.

Our third guest, Debora Fudge, has multiple decades of experience serving on the board of the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) and as the chair for multiple terms. SMART was able to build a 43 mile passenger (and freight) rail project with a trail out of an existing set of train tracks, a situation extremely similar to that of Santa Cruz County, yet with a larger and more complex project for a fraction of some of the cost estimates for the Santa Cruz County Rail and Trail Project: less than $1B. The opportunity to learn from Fudge was very valuable as it is an excellent point of comparison for our Rail and Trail Project. Fudge mentioned that there are residents of Marin who opposed the SMART project who are also involved with opposing passenger rail in the Santa Cruz County.

This was a live broadcast so we took calls from people expressing various views and posing questions for our guests, who shared their expertise and corrected factual inaccuracies callers raised at times. Guests and callers discussed the matter of SMART and the Santa Cruz RTC hiring the same consultant for guidance, at different stages of development of the passenger rail and trail plans.

This show also includes recorded audio clips including one from Rod Diridon, the inspiration for Diridon Station in San Jose.

Because this show was recorded live on November 17, we’ve added an update at the top of the show, from Barry Scott, to reflect the new proposal from Fred Keeley and Manu Koenig to “Build those stretches of trail on top of the railroad tracks” as the Lookout Santa Cruz November 25th article describes it. This proposal will be part of the agenda for this Thursday’s RTC meeting which the public is welcome to join either in person at the Watsonville City Council Chambers or on Zoom from 9AM to 12PM. We encourage you to stay in touch with the commissioners and drop them a line to share your thoughts at: [email protected]. This is a link to a letter from Mayor Keeley to the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission 12/01/25: https://www.sccrtc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Handout-item-26-Partner-Letter.pdf.

Christine Barrington did a wonderful series of shows about the Rail and Trail which you can access here: https://ksqd.org/the-true-story-of-santa-cruz-rail-trail/