‘Railbanking’ term avoided in final decision
7/13/12
Its membership is unclear, but the formation of a committee is in the works to look at the future of the railroad around the Humboldt Bay corridor.
After hours of deliberation, the North Coast Rail Authority — a group formed by the state Legislature in 1989 to protect rail infrastructure — voted unanimously Wednesday to form a committee focused on rail and trail issues around the bay. The board decided to form the committee with the understanding that it doesn’t have any funds to expend on extra travel related to committee issues.
Second District Supervisor Clif Clendenen, who serves as a North Coast Railroad Authority director, said he’s planning to work with the county’s public works department, the Humboldt County Association of Governments — which is largely responsible for county transportation projects — and possibly Caltrans staff to brainstorm ideas for creating the committee. He said HCAOG might be able to help financially support the committee.
“I think we’ve got enough potential resources to where we could make a committee function,” Clendenen said.
The authority was asked by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, spurred by a request from a local advocacy group, to form a committee to look into railbanking. Bay T(rail) Plan advocates petitioned the supervisors last month to send a letter to the NCRA making the request. These advocates want to see the rail between Arcata and Eureka turned into a paved, multi-modal path.
The Bay T(rail) Plan’s idea of “railbanking” the railroad around northern Humboldt Bay has elicited fears from some that the railroad could disappear forever. Congress created the term “railbanking” in 1983, and it allows for unused rails to be converted into trails — at least until the time when the railroad is needed again. Supporters have said the act of railbanking preserves the railroad’s right-of-way, allowing the trail to be converted back to a railroad if needed.
Clendenen said the term “railbanking” was not well received by half of the NCRA board. Instead of forming a committee to specifically look at railbanking, the board decided to support a Humboldt Bay Rail Corridor Committee that will evaluate the creation of trails, look at rail bed restoration and the restoration of rail service consistent with NCRA trail policy.
“We’re going to look at the trail issues consistent with our rails-with-trails policy,” Clendenen said.
Bay T(rail) Plan advocate Judy Hodgson said there was definitely some board resistance to the railbanking idea, despite support for the creation of a railbanking committee by Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro.
A letter from Chesbro to the NCRA board states the railbanking committee could address questions “concerning the rapid deterioration of the NCRA’s bayside railroad prism, the threat which the deterioration of the prism poses to the integrity of (U.S.) Highway 101, questions relating to liability issues, as well as to develop potential options for both protecting the NCRA’s railroad prism and providing for its prospective use for rail, trail or railand-trail.”
Hodgson said photos of the railroad’s deterioration from the county public works department were dramatic, and made an impact on the NCRA board’s decision to create the Humboldt Bay Rail Corridor Committee.
“They were extremely concerned about the rail bed condition,” Hodgson said.
She said rail operator John Williams, with Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co., told the board he did not have any current plans to restore rail service around Humboldt Bay.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors last month, Williams said he’s opposed to railbanking and that railbanking any portion of the line would constitute an interference with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co.’s contractual rights. The letter states the company is also opposed to the formation of a railbanking committee.
“I am convinced that a railwith-trail is attainable between Eureka, Arcata and Samoa and that it is the more appropriate solution,” Williams wrote.
The NCRA board meets next month in Marin County and will likely discuss the committee’s membership in more detail then.
