It’s a few short miles of railroad tracks between Eureka and Arcata owned by the North Coast Railroad Authority.
But, as the NCRA struggles to secure funding to restore trains along its rusting rails, the unused right-of-way is being eyed by trail advocates and has become one of the focal points of political debate over the county’s economic and lifestyle future.
The League of Women Voters of Humboldt County held a forum Tuesday evening from 6 to 8, in hopes of presenting the public with unbiased information regarding the feasibility of trails and railroads in the county and to facilitate a dialogue on the issues.
It was a forum that all the panelists in the “Rails and Trails: A Balanced Forum on the Development of Humboldt Bay” agreed was educational and helpful, but in then end, there was no budging any of the sides.
The panel of speakers included Patrick Higgins, a Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Commissioner, Chris Rall, of GreenWheels, Third District Supervisor John Woolley, Marcus Brown, president of the Timber Heritage Association, Spencer Clifton, executive director of the Humboldt County Association of Governments, Brian Morrissey, of Security National, and Mike Beuttner, of the Trails Trust of Humboldt.
Woolley, also the county’s representative to the NCRA’s board of directors, reiterated the NCRA’s commitment to support trails and even rails with trails, but stressed the public agency’s primary mandate enacted by the Legislature.
That’s to restore the 300-mile railroad corridor, now defunct for a decade, back to working order and to keep the momentum of the $100 million already invested in the process already underway.
“To give up now, would be imprudent,” Woolley said.
But Rall, who advocated for a trail along the Eureka-Arcata corridor he said is viable now, questioned whether the NCRA’s mandate was still valid.
Rall said it might be time to return to the Legislature to craft more realistic goals for the railroad agency.
The cost to restore the NCRA’s railroad through the geologically unstable Eel River canyon, which all the panelists agreed would be in the hundreds of millions — is a major hurdle that some said they believe will never be overcome.
Editors Note: More complete coverage of this two-hour event will be published in an upcoming newspaper.
15 comments
Back to top
How do our 'visionary' leaders continue to cling to this dream of the past? Do they ever imagine the $ to repair the rails will magically appear? And what will we be shipping? Salmon? Timber? Water? As Dylan once said, " . . . Please get out of the new one, if you can't lend a hand, oh the times . . . " Take a broader and more realistic view people. Trail it.
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
Why the hell was Morressey there? What does he bring to the table?
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
Why are we still talking about this? Time to move on.
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
budget wise it's ridiculous bc what about maintenance of the rails once in place. what about our county roads, clinics, schools, food programs and fire and police department budgets. just who in heck does this rail fantasy serve anyway?
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
We need to get together with our legislators to push to get this trail built in the near future. The trail would enhance our area for residents and visitors alike. The rail fantasy helps no one.
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
What about light rail for local transit needs? Have the bike nuts forgotten about elderly and disabled people who aren't going to peddle around the bay on some trail?
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
There are no plans for light rail transit, only freight service, which would be supported by shipping river gravel out of here. Local public transit would be better served via improvements as suggested by Green Wheels.
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
The state legislature made a mistake in creating the NCRA instead of letting the line go through federal abandonment and rail-banking when the line was closed 10 years ago. The question is, how long will it remain politically correct to throw good money after bad?
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
Brian was indeed a fish out water at this event and contributed next to nothing. But the real question is where in the hell was Caltrans? They are a major player in this drama and should have been in the seat Brian clogged up.
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
Sorry to all on the panel. The title of this article just begs for this:
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
The Timber Heritage Association is in the process of restoring an operating steam locomotive, along with securing their already occupied Samoa Railroad Shops site as a logging history museum. With these two operations in place, they are attempting to begin a tourist passenger train that will connect Eureka to Arcata, and then out to Samoa all along the bay’s perimeter. This is a definite foreseeable plan, which can be on track as early as 2010. This is why I believe that there should be a “rail with trail” between Arcata and Eureka. It would cost much less to add the trail, a safety fence that separates the trail from the tracks, and other landscaping than it would to rip up the entire track! This way, if freight train traffic ever did reappear in Humboldt County, things would be set. Also, the trail people also get what they want. It’s a win-win situation!
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
The THA has been working on this for 30 years and there is no funding source to build or operate the tourist train. There is money to build trails. Read the recent trail study and you will find that between Arcata and Eureka a "rail with trail" is over 30 million and a trail is only 5 million. Where will we get the extra 25 million for a train too?
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
Keep showing your support.
The Hammond Trail,Arcata Marsh,Humboldt Bay,Eureka,King Salmon,Fields Landing,College of the Redwoods,Fortuna,the Eel River and Avenue of the Giants all safely accessible from our door steps by bike or foot! This is a gold mine and a fantastic way of life.
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
The comminists who control C.C.C.Alifornia are never going to let you put an oil leaky train that's runn-off will pour into the long dead Humboldt Bay. Give it up, shut it up, you are only running bills up!
Notify administrators of inappropriate comment
A $100,000,000 has already been spent by the NCRA? They are not even CLOSE.It would not be prudent to continue to pursue a billion dollar pork barrel project that will never happen while Humboldt stagnates.Use the line south of Willits for commuter traffic.Turn over the line north for the trail network.COME ON.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Propeller
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. To post comments, please register an account (or log in if you already have one). You must enter your name and contact information in the “Personal Information” section and check the “Request comment permission” box.