Goodbye NCRA – Hello Great Redwood Trail Agency
Press release from the Office of California Senator Mike McGuire:
On Monday morning at 10:30am, the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) will be holding their final meeting.
After nearly 30 years of controversy, massive policy setbacks, and straddling bankruptcy for years – the agency that was charged with trying to bring rail back to the North Coast will officially cease operations, per state law passed by Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire.
And, at 11:30am on Monday, the Great Redwood Trail Agency will spring to life! This new agency, created by SB 69, will take over the rail corridor and is charged with advancing the Master Plan later this fall and building the Great Redwood Trail on top of the current rail bed. When fully built, the Great Redwood Trail will run from the San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay, becoming the longest rail trail in America. Senator McGuire will be speaking to kick off their first meeting.
“The Great Redwood Trail will be a game changer for the North Coast. Over 25,000 miles of former freight rail line have been transitioned to trails over the past 30 years throughout America and we couldn’t be more excited to move the Great Redwood Trail forward here in Northern California,” said Senator Mike McGuire, the author of the legislative and budget items that created the new agency. “The Great Redwood Trail will be a world class destination for hikers, cyclists and nature lovers here at home and from across the globe. Stretching from San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay, the Trail will encompass 300 miles of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. Monday will be a historic day for our region and we can’t wait to say goodbye to the dysfunctional North Coast Rail Authority and say hello to the Great Redwood Trail!”
The Trail will serve not only as a recreational, social, and exercise path, but will quickly become an economic driver for the North Coast communities it runs through. Outdoor recreation was a $93 billion dollar industry in this state before COVID, and the revenue has been steadily climbing to return to that level.
The meetings will be held via Zoom and can be accessed here:
NCRA’s final meeting:
Date and time: Monday, March 14 at 10:30am
Zoom Meeting ID: 825 2940 1844
Passcode: 808342
GRTA’s first official meeting:
Date and time: Monday, March 14 at 11:30am
Zoom Meeting ID: 833 3517 4933
Passcode: 808342
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
This will be a money pit.
And nobody for a second even assumed there would be consequences of people migrating up here using that trail and building encampments all throughout the woods.
10 years from now all of nature will be filled with trash and I’m going to say “I told you so.”
I think it could be a really cool thing, but it needs serious funding to be done right and needs to have some policing so it doesn’t get run down into a homeless/druggy hangout.
Let’s hope it’s done right.
Is this a continuation of the trail that goes behind the Bayshore Mall?
Yep
The homeless/druggies always stay close to services. If there isn’t a gas station or grocery store nearby then they won’t go there. There will be issues with this project but homeless people hiking way out into the middle of a food desert won’t be one of them.
Exactly
Defiantly one of the stupidest predictions I’ve ever read here.
There’s nothing quite like defiant stupidity.
Unless there will be a liquor store on the trail, I doubt it.
Yeah, because homeless people regularly migrate along 300-mile recreational walking trails.
We can be assured the Timber Companies and ranchers will be filing litigation as they have already made that clear to the STB Federal agency over seeing this process.
So McGuire filed for railbanking which by definition is to preserve the rail line for future rail reactivation yet then changes the name of the rail agency to a trail agency before the STB even makes a decision. Seems like he is saying one thing and doing another. I would think the STB notices that.
Looking forward to the trails through Murder Mountain. Great family fun!
Fantastic news, finally – Look at the Via Verde system in Spain to see how cool this can be. A great way to repurpose old, unused railway lines!
Is this Zoom meeting listen-in or will questions from the public be addressed?
What security issues are being considered? Will there be bicycle patrols, safety lights, & call boxes? What about cellular repeaters along stretches of the trail which pass through dead zones? How many new emergency helipads are being considered? If not, what response times can be expected in remote areas?
But what I really want to know is, can we expect rows of food trucks (and of course mobile dispensaries, heh) along the Alderpoint bridge?
Unless it is a question that is approved by McGuire’s henchman Lyles it won’t get addressed.
Those are good and reasonable questions. Well, except for maybe the last one. Ha.
I suggest you do like many of us in So Hum have done for decades and show up, participate and help shape the design of this wonderful opportunity!
Its really too bad that there is no good route for rail. It is more energy efficient to move freight by rail, and then distributed with smaller trucks/vans. This also keeps the 18 wheelers from double parking all over town as they make deliveries.
Articfcally cheap gasoline caused us to move from rail to tractor-trailers, which also cause tremendous wear on the highways/freeways.
“Its really too bad that there is no good route for rail. It is more energy efficient to move freight by rail, and then distributed with smaller trucks/vans.”
Yup, too bad, there is just no good route. The old one was/is an environmental disaster. The North Coast Rail Authority wasted millions – but paid well.
“Local railroad politics have always inspired weird alliances. Think back just a few years ago, when the Arcata liberal political establishment-types of the day – John Woolley, Wes Chesbro, Dan Hauser – were strapped to a bunch of suspenders-wearing, pinstripe-capped choo-choo obsessives, running a three-legged race toward the eternally imminent restoration of freight train service to Humboldt Bay.”
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2015/jun/10/central-valley-farmers-side-north-coast-enviros-no/
Sure there were issues with a rail line that was built prior to the invention of hydraulics but if the right engineering were financed it could be done right.
The old rail did work for about 80 years.
I agree that moving freight by rail is more energy efficient than trucks. However, if the railways aren’t able to be maintained in a way to makes the trip safe I think that opening the route for use in other ways is a good idea. This trail has the protentional to bring needed traffic to small businesses that are struggling.
One sentence makes me real sad: the trail will encompass 300 miles of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet! Add multiple humans, not so beautiful any longer…☹️
I’ll hike the trail starting from Camp Grant through the Eel River Canyon south beginning the first day it opens! If there’s water in the river it’s an inner tube ride back. Who wants to go with me? It’ll be more of a long stroll as I’m aging.
This is another one of those fantasies that has been ginned up by not listening to any differing perspectives.
McGuire has been like a rabid dog on this. At previous meetings he simply refused to answer questions he didn’t like on multiple occasions. He is not an honest man.
I personally know of multiple secret meetings where it was made sure there were only fellow Kool aid drinkers invited.
It is very ironic that the whole abandonment process NCRA is in right know is being held up by the fact the Annie Mary line may well have been abandoned before NCRA “owned” it although they can’t show when they actually bought it. What that means is the trails that were built on the Annie Mary were likely done so illegally.
NCRA has been a nothing entity since it’s inception. It’s about as logical and real as Gavin’s high speed railroad to nowhere. It was nothing but a placeholder so Dan Hauser could continue to draw a paycheck from taxpayers for doing nothing.
There is no right of way left in many places in the Canyon of the Eel. There will never be a trail there unless it goes way onto private land in many places to get around the sheer cliffs. It is a world class kayak route and that could easily be supported by the State to increase it’s users. The tourist hiking trail needs to follow the 101 corridor north of Willits with connections to the Pacific Coast Trail and walkable towns along the Avenue of the Giants.
The legislation is really all about paying off Doug Bosco and his NWP pseudo railroad. NCRA is bankrupt and owed the NWP several million dollars, though only by the magic of sweetheart deals and accounting and after selling off all the extra real estate to keep NWP in the gravy thus far.
A trail of tents and vagrants from SF to Eureka…No thanks.
Do you have any evidence that that will happen? Have you ever been on any other long-distance recreational trail in the country? It’s 300 miles long, dude, do you really think homeless people want to move to the middle of nowhere?
Any tweeker worth his bulby pipe could ride 300 miles on a stolen BMX bike in one easy night.