Thirty miles of unused railroad track in Tulare County could be the key to economic development -- and also help cut traffic congestion and smog -- but county officials know they're in a race against time to keep the tracks from being torn up.
They may also have a political battle on their hands: A government watchdog group in Visalia is raising questions about the proposal to use Measure R funds to buy the tracks.
When voters in 2006 approved Measure R, the county's half-cent sales tax for transportation projects, the project list included roads, not railroads, said Darlene Mata, director of the Visalia Community Forum, a watchdog group supported by business interests.
Officials have estimated that the cost to buy the tracks could be as much as $3 million, but Mata said she suspects it would be higher.
"Once you put your money on the table, if more money is needed, you have no choice but to keep throwing money at it," Mata said. "In the end, I don't think it's just $3 million."
Buying tracks was not foreseen when officials were compiling the project list for Measure R, but the tracks are a priority now, Tulare County Supervisor Allen Ishida said. As a result, the Tulare County Association of Governments, composed of county supervisors and elected officials from every city in the county, unanimously amended the plan last year to allow such spending, he said. Another vote would be required to buy any tracks, he added.
"This is crucial for economic development opportunities for the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, and really it's the future of economic opportunity of the Valley," Ishida said.
Keeping the tracks will enable existing businesses to move their products, and could attract new businesses to the area, he said.
The Association of Governments would buy the rails, although not the land, which is owned by Union Pacific. The only thing needed after that is a railroad company ready to use them.
Ishida dismissed the questions raised by the watchdogs as coming from a group based in Visalia that is not focusing on the county or region as a whole.
But Mata said her group's concerns still stand.
"It's not that we think it's a bad idea," Mata said, adding, "Measure R was voted on for road projects."
San Joaquin Valley Railroad, which operates on 345 miles of track in Tulare, Fresno, Kings and Kern counties, determined the stretch of rail from Strathmore to Jovista, located on the Tulare-Kern county line, was no longer making money.
The railroad obtained permission last year from the federal Surface Transportation Board to remove its 30 miles of track.
But county officials and rail advocates say the line, although unprofitable now, won't be so in the future, and should not be torn up.
"All it takes is marketing and getting customers on line," said Chuck Littlefield, former general manager of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad and an unofficial adviser to people trying to save the tracks.
Manufacturers, distribution centers, food processors and agricultural shippers use rails and create jobs, Ishida said.
"If they come in and rip up this line, it's all over," he said.
And if the San Joaquin railroad can scrap the tracks, it's only a matter of time before other tracks get abandoned, he added, noting that the railroad tried, but failed, previously to abandon 10 miles from Exeter to Strathmore.
A May 2009 study by graduate students at the Craig School of Business at California State University, Fresno, makes the case that a short-line railroad in Tulare County could be profitable.
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