Good Decision for Jobs, Economic Development, Agriculture and the Environment

By Bobbie Singh Allen

The Stanislaus Council of Governments Policy Board (StanCOG) should use their authority to support the development of a new rail transportation link between Crows Landing and the San Francisco Bay Area in order to improve the jobs and housing balance in Stanislaus County when they meet on Wednesday November 14 at 6 pm,in Modesto.

StanCog will be asked to support an application request for State trade corridor bond funding for a short-haul/commuter rail link which is included in the current proposal to develop the former Crows Landing Naval Air Facility — strategically located between the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley agricultural producers near an existing railroad right of way and adjacent to Interstate 5.

What this resolution does not do is obligate StanCog or any local Stanislaus agency to fund any portion of the short haul rail project or its development – the project developer remains on the hook for these costs.

A rail transportation link connecting the San Francisco Bay Area to an inland port facility at Crows Landing in the Central Valley will also provide an opportunity for development of a new rail passenger service on the same rail line serving the west side of Stanislaus County while providing improved regional transportation access in Northern California.

This will significantly reduce the number of trucks and automobiles traveling on freeways in the East Bay and over the Altamont Pass and provide critically needed congestion relief and air quality improvements.

Translation: fewer commuters and trucks on the roads, and a positive impact on the environment.

The stated intent here – working with the agricultural export shipping community, regional transportation planning agencies and the lead from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District – is to gain financing from a state bond program called the “Goods Movement Emission Reduction Program” to make a down payment on the system.

In addition, the public transportation agencies of San Joaquin Council of Governments,Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Altamont Commuter Express (ACE), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and the Ports of Stockton, and Sacramento are all working collectively on securing a regional joint application for

State Infrastructure Bond monies under the $3.1 Billion earmarked for Port Access

Improvements, Capital Projects, and Air Quality Improvements.

Our intent is also to create a seamless “air quality improvement system” that would significantly clean up a well documented portion of the San Joaquin Valley’s on-road truck emissions and improve Bay Area truck emissions by permanently changing the whole transportation paradigm for transport from farm to ocean carrier, from the Central Valley to world markets. In a phrase; instead of simply dealing with the 100% truck system you now have, we would take the trucks permanently out of the system for a significant portion of the pollution they now create on trips to and from the Port of Oakland everyday.

As the Crows Landing land owner for the project, the County of Stanislaus has already voiced its support of a regional joint application for State Infrastructure Bond dollars, approved in the most recent statewide election.  As the funding is made available by
the California Transportation Commission, and the California Air Resources Board and/or the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, StanCog’s approval of the resolution being presented will all staff participation in on-going joint efforts with the partner agencies in the development, preparation, presentation, and submission of the Northern California Trade Corridor Bond application.

Finally, the State Department of Finance projects 10 million more people will live in the Central Valley over the next 30 years. We would ask you to consider the question - if we do not change this transport paradigm NOW, and continue to rely totally on trucks, will
we ever be able to make real progress on emissions as more and more trucks enter the air basins?

Somehow, all of these people will need to be serviced by retailers, grocers, and builders. The Proposition 1B program gives us all the opportunity to think expansively and long term, and yet start the clean up now with a system like we are proposing. And by the way, joint use of these rail rights-of-way allow for a huge improvement in commuter rail, taking cars out of the system permanently, which is another added air quality benefit.

StanCog should join the chorus of regional transportation, planning and environmental agencies and lend their support to this vital, much needed effort.

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