Friends of the Rail and Trail (FORT) take credit for the defeat of 2022’s Measure D; three families financed 80 percent of that negative campaign. Their primary objective is initiating passenger rail, regardless of the necessity, or expense to taxpayers, it seems. For this reason, they are all in on the Ultimate trail, whose two-segment costs, for only 4.5 miles, have ballooned from $18 million to $111-$25 million per mile! to protect the 100+ year-old freight tracks which have yet to be proven serviceable for passenger rail. FORT’s plan includes demolition of hundreds of trees, fencing the length of the tracks, and tons of GHG emissions from the concrete for miles of massive retaining walls.
Today they are condemning the county supervisors who put the brakes on this plan – because in spite of FORT’s cries about equity for South County, these trail segments threaten to exhaust local matching funds that will allow trail sections to be built to Watsonville.
When the latest rail feasibility study is released, let’s base our spending decisions on facts.
— Jack Brown, Aptos
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