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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

A community vision takes a community. Twenty-plus years of neighbors who want the same thing, showing up again and again. A county where we’re connected, and anyone can walk, bike, and roll. #RailAndTrail #friendsoftherailandtrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Rail and trail in İzmir, Turkey, sent in by one of our volunteers. Bike to the station. Ride the train. Bike the last mile. This is what a complete, car-free trip looks like. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Get to Santa Cruz from Watsonville in 40 minutes Get to Santa Cruz from Aptos in 18 minutes Get to Santa Cruz from Capitola in 11 minutes #RailAndTrail Travel times: Rail Transit Feasibility Study—Final Report, RTC, 2015.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Rail goes where the bus AND car can not. The straight shot between the Westside of Santa Cruz and Capitola is what makes rail travel times faster than a car, even without traffic. SC Rail transit is the only public transportation option with reliable travel times that will be faster than driving.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Our rail line connects to the rest of the state. Imagine all the places you could go with a connected rail system like this one. #CaliforniaRail #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The point of investing in transportation is to give people choices. Bikes and trains don't compete with each other, they complement each other. They solve different problems. That's why keeping the rail corridor while building the trail makes sense: more ways to get around Santa Cruz County.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The trail expands transportation choices. Rail expands them again. Why would we build one and permanently give up the other? 🚶 Walking works for some trips. 🚲 Bikes work for some trips. 🚌 Buses work for some trips. 🚆 Trains work for some trips. 🚗 Cars are necessary for some trips.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Transportation should work for everyone, not just the people who can check every box. That means a trail, a rail line, and buses that connect to each other, so more of us can leave the car at home when that works. That's what a complete transportation system looks like. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

It's the weekend, and we're dreaming of trains again. The Suntan Special at the Boardwalk, 1940s. Rail moved people. It also brought them together. Still does, where it runs. Photo: Santa Cruz Trains

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Nobody calls that the cost of transportation. Only transit gets asked that question. Rail and trail is public infrastructure too. We already own the corridor. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Someone always says transit costs too much. Roads cost money too. Gas taxes and tolls used to cover most of that. Now they cover about half. The rest comes out of income and sales taxes, which everyone pays, including people who never drive.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Rail and trail give everybody options. The train carries you across the county on a schedule you can count on. The trail gets you the rest of the way, at both ends. This is what we are fighting for. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

You can't drive two directions at once. So somebody's late, or somebody's early and waiting, and the whole day gets built around the driving. Same roads, same trips, twice a day, and it adds up, in time and in money.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

School's back, and everybody's morning got harder. Most families have more places to be than people to get there. A parent's shift starts at eight, a kid's class starts at eight, and they aren't in the same part of the county.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Hotel locations don't lie. The people staying in them eat and shop all along the rail line. Visitors spent $1.4 billion in this county in 2024, a big share of our economy. Let's give them a way to get around that supports our businesses without adding to our traffic. Map: SCCRTC. 2024

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A way to get to work, to school, to a doctor, where the trip isn't the hard part. The corridor already belongs to all of us. What we build on it should work for all of us. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A route for walking, biking, and rolling that's separated from traffic and works whether you're six or eighty. Cleaner air, in a county where transportation is our largest source of emissions.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

What does a rail and trail actually get us? A second way across the county. One that doesn't put everyone on Highway 1. A student in Watsonville reaching a class or a shift in Santa Cruz without needing a car to do it.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Every trip made by bike, on foot, or by rail is a trip that doesn’t have to be made by car. We don’t need to keep building more for cars when we can build more ways for people to get where they’re going. #RailANDTrail #SantaCruz #publictransit 📸: Crystal Birns

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Every road has a bill. What you pay to own a car. Building and repairing roads. The people hurt and killed on them. How much of it runs on oil. The air. The land, every time we widen the highways. Rail and trail give us another way.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

"Just one more lane." It doesn't work with regular cars, and it won't work with robotaxis or flying ones. What gets people past traffic is an option that isn't in it. We already own ours. Rail and trail. #RailAndTrail - Cartoonist ZACH

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Rail, bus, and bike, working as one system, so getting to a job or a class or the beach is reliable and open to everyone, without an enormous monthly bill attached. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Rent is too high. Vehicles cost too much. Public transit helps everyone get ahead. Transit that runs separate from traffic is a public good. Everyone pays a little, anyone can use it.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The county bought the rail line in 2012. Kids who were ten then are twenty-four now. The can is still getting kicked down the road. The best time to build it was then. The second best is now. Photo: Coastal Rail Trail Segment 7 Phase 2 ribbon cutting, 2025.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

What happens if we put rail off for another thirty years? It gets more expensive. Construction costs don't go down. Another generation grows up with driving as the only way to get anywhere. More students and working people taking on a car payment, insurance, and gas just to get to work.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

People treat this as a local fight. It's more than that. We're already on the map. The question is how we connect it. Source: California State Rail Plan, Caltrans #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Santa Cruz is on California's rail map. Not as a someday idea. Our branch line is in the state rail plan, and Caltrans is doing the work now. Our line runs Davenport to Watsonville. At Pajaro it meets the main line, and from there it's San Jose, San Francisco, and south toward LA.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Capitola wants to hear from you about traffic and safety for pedestrians and cyclists! The city is writing its first Active Transportation Plan, and there's a survey open now. atp.cityofcapitola.gov

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

School is back in session, and thousands of kids in our county get there by bike and bus. They shouldn't have to share the road with cars to do it. On the trail, they don't. A safer system for our kids isn't a someday thing. We're building it now. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Build for people, not cars. The rest follows. Community safety shouldn't be a second thought. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

If the corridor needed repairs, the answer is to maintain it, not allow it to deteriorate until its condition becomes an argument for removing it. That's like buying a fixer-upper, refusing to repair the roof, and then claiming the house is too far gone to save. #railandtrail 📸: Bill Le Bon

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Does it make sense to acquire a viable rail line simply to just abandon it? It was a functioning rail line when the RTC bought it. The Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line was acquired as a public transportation asset. Like any public investment, it required ongoing stewardship.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

That's why the work on our corridor matters now, not later. Every segment we advance keeps our county in position for dollars like these. Photo: trail construction along the corridor, late 2024. Sources: Governor's announcement, Jul 16, 2026

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

The state expects the work to create more than 150,000 jobs, and it brings California's transportation investment to almost $14 billion this year. Money like this goes to projects that are ready: planned, studied, and eligible when the state comes looking.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

How is California funding transportation this year? Here's a bit from the Governor's office. Nearly $2.5 billion just went out to more than 150 projects across the state: public transit, rail, local streets, and walking and biking routes.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

The thing is, we already have a public corridor running the whole length of the county. Every trail segment that opens is a way to get around without all of that. Rail on the line would finish the job. Everyone should be able to move. Simple as that. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

You'll also need to be old enough, and physically able, to operate heavy machinery. Traffic not included. If you're a kid, a senior, or someone who can't drive or can't afford to, you're left waiting on a ride.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Getting food, getting to work or school, having a little fun now and then. That's all most of us are really trying to do. Our transportation system: Sure. That will be $11,000 a year, plus a license, insurance, gas, and somewhere to park.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Cleaner air. Transportation is our county's biggest source of emissions, and this corridor is our best tool to change that. And connection. To work, to school, to the coast, to each other. The corridor is public. It belongs to all of us, and what we build on it should serve all of us. #RailAndTrail

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

What do we gain from a rail and trail? A way across the county that doesn't depend on Highway 1. A safe, separated route for people walking, biking, and rolling. All ages, all abilities.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Key hubs and neighborhoods were built around it over decades. We're not starting from scratch. We're repurposing something we already have.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

But we already voted to keep this line, and there are very realistic paths to bringing it into full service. Here's the reason rail works for our county: we already have the line.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Take a common sense public transportation project using an existing piece of infrastructure the county already owns and reframe it as a behemoth project with too many hoops to jump through, and it starts to sound impossible.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Second - Write an oped about how the project is impossible because it’s taking too long and is now more expensive. That's the whole game.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Opposition to our Rail project uses tactics made famous from the Koch brothers to oppose public transportation projects nationwide. First - Delay, ‘question’, and hamper progress at every decision point.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The rail line is our only realistic shot at a third corridor, one that can move people from Watsonville to the Westside and back without sitting in traffic. 📸: Crystal Birns

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Our urbanized area is a narrow, densely populated strip with only two main travel corridors, so acquiring a third one showed real foresight. Traffic has gotten worse every year since 2012, and it won't reverse on its own.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

What does sustainable transportation planning look like? In 2012, Santa Cruz County bought the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line for $14.2 million. The idea was to secure a third transportation corridor for the county.

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Friends Of The Rail & Trail @railandtrail.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The fiscally responsible solution isn't just building more roads. It's investing in transportation choices like transit, biking, and walking that reduce the need for expensive road expansions and decades of maintenance costs. Transportation choice saves taxpayers money. #RailAndTrail

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