Politics & Government
It's a Go: Trains Rolling Through Sonoma County Corridor
First NWP train arrives in Petaluma from Napa county, will make run to Santa Rosa on Friday at earliest
The train has been thundering down the tracks toward return of freight rail service in the North Bay recently, and today the first shipment of commercial cargo arrived in Sonoma County.
Monday night the Novato City Council, last government body whose approval was needed, reached an agreement for safety improvements at 13 railroad crossings and the establishment of quiet zones near residential areas.
This gave the green light to begin service, according to articles in Novato Patch and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Find out what's happening in Sonoma Valleyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The last legal railroad tie has been laid under the track, and now freight trains can run through the Novato city limits for the first time since 1998.
The first train? Expect it to thunder through downtown Novato at about 25 mph sometime mid-day Wednesday — a locomotive pulling five cars full of grain destined for Petaluma.
Find out what's happening in Sonoma Valleyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“It’s a reasonable and responsible agreement for both sides,” said John Williams, owner of Northwest Pacific Railroad Company. ()
The process of negotiating, contracting and permitting the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties has been going on since 2007. At that time the North Coast Railroad Authority started repairs on bridges, crossing signals and tracks damaged in 1998 by an El Nino winter, and fallen into disrepair since.
But it only took a day for NWP to begin rolling.
Freight trains returned to Sonoma County this morning [Wednesday], hauling their first commercial cargo in almost 10 years.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said Dan Figone, a partner in Hunt & Behrens, an 80-year-old Petaluma feed mill.
An NWP Co. locomotive arrived at Hunt & Behrens this morning pulling five carloads of grain. The feed mill expects to get three deliveries a week, Figone said.
The train won’t roll through Santa Rosa until Friday or next Monday, said Jake Park, NWP’s general manager. It is scheduled to deliver lumber to Standard Structures, a Windsor wood manufacturer. (Press Democrat)
Ultimately, Northwest Pacific plans service of three round trips a week, in trains of up to 15 cars in length. The full map of service areas planed by the North Cast Railroad Authority from Humboldt County into Marin, can be found online at the NWP website.
What do you think of the return of freight rail service?
