Keep the SMART train rolling
SonomaMarin Area Rail Transit hasn’t always lived up to its acronym. Thanks to a combination of unrealistic projections and unfortunate timing, the SMART train has come up well short of the distance it promised to cover more than a decade ago. After two years of operations, ridership remains modest enough that officials made matters worse by trying to hide the figures.
Such miscues, along with an overfinanced opposition, have complicated the campaign for a 30year extension of the North Bay rail line’s dedicated funding through Measure Q, a 0.25% regional sales tax that was passed by voters in 2008 and is set to expire in 2029. Measure I, appearing on the primary ballot in Marin and Sonoma counties in March, will maintain the quartercent tax per dollar until 2059 if twothirds of the electorate approves.
Despite its detours, SMART provides a viable transportation alternative to a stretch of Highway 101 that desperately needs one in a region that has been all too averse to such options for much of its history. While the system and its management have work to do, Measure I amounts to a reasonable request to extend a modest levy that will give the rail line room to build on its achievements and correct its mistakes.
The region’s voters first approved SMART just in time for the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and its revenues failed to meet expectations as a result. Pitched as a 70mile rail line with bicycle trails stretching from the bay all the way to Cloverdale, it now spans just 45 miles to the Sonoma County Airport, north of Santa Rosa, with intermittent bike paths.
But the system, which reuses old tracks, has shown a capacity to do a lot with relatively little, more than doubling the reach of its sales tax revenue through state, federal and other funds. It recently reached its planned southern terminus at Larkspur, allowing ferry service to San Francisco. While some older and disabled passengers are regrettably deterred by the walk from train to ferry, the link to the city has enormous potential in a place that has tended to keep the rest of the Bay Area at arm’s length. The SMART train has already encouraged examples of the transitoriented development the region needs.
Although the system can count on nine more years of sales tax revenue, officials say mounting debt payments will require it to begin consuming reserves and cutting service by 2024. That points to excessive borrowing at the outset. But the plan to extend SMART’s revenue stream and refinance the debt now, with interest rates on municipal bonds at record lows, makes sense. Officials expect it to free up more than $12 million a year for operations.
That should help SMART’s management expand its reach and impact, which, at about 2,500 rides a day during the week, remains small. While the system’s weekday ridership has grown, its overall numbers declined slightly during its second year of operations due to diminishing weekend use. That’s no cause for alarm given that the train was designed for commuters, but it might show where officials can focus their efforts and cut costs.
What is concerning is the system’s lack of transparency on ridership and other matters; Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat reported that SMART refused to disclose daily and weekly passenger counts for months before releasing them in January. That’s unacceptable: A public transit agency must be accountable to the public.
Choking off the potential for longterm stability, as Measure I’s opponents propose, isn’t the answer to that or any other shortcoming of the system, however. The public should give officials the opportunity to fix what’s wrong and realize SMART’s potential by voting yes.