Wine Country Times

Sen. Mike McGuire reiterated the benefits of the Great Redwood Trail expansion in a recent tweet. 

The $3 million budget request for the modifications, outlined in McGuire’s landmark legislation, SB 1029, was approved by the Senate and the Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Resources and Transportation over a year ago. 

“The Great Redwood Trail will become the longest rail-trail in America and be a significant economic driver,” Mcguire wrote in a Facebook post. “Our legislation that will formally wind down the old & bankrupt rail agency, and transition the board to a trail agency, passed with strong bipartisan support today.”

Stretching 300 miles across California’s North Coast from Humble Bay to South Francisco Bay, with 1,900 property easements, trail modifications are currently undergoing “a critical phase,” McGuire said. Funding provided by California Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission trail grant programs will cover the $1 million initial assessment of the trail’s condition, $1.5 million for research and $500,000 for NCRA audits for a potential partial transfer of the  Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit District.

"The great river trail will transition a mostly abandoned 320-mile rail line into a world-class trail system" McGuire stated in a press conference. 

The trial said to generate more than $92 billion annually and contribute close to 700,000 job opportunities and $6 billion in tax revenues, is projected to significantly boost the economy. It serves as a tourist attraction and the replacement of a debilitated railroad, hosting social events such as the upcoming Town Hall in Ukiah on June 22, and similar activity in Arcata on May 4.

“We’ve always known that creating the Great Redwood Trail was not going to be easy, nor will be quick,” McGuire said. “There’s going to be a ton of work ahead of us for the next many years. It’s going to take time to be able to do this project right. And, we need to work through a slew of detail with our partners, with the federal and state governments, and right here at home.”