A Brief Overview of the Solano Rail Student Project

Just after the turn of the century, I was a military wife and part-time college student with dreams of being an urban planner. We were stationed at Travis Air Force Base (AFB) and living in Fairfield, California. So, as a student research project, I developed an alternate plan to the existing rail plan for Solano County using GIS, environmental analysis and other tools from the various classes I was taking at the time.

At that time, there was only one rail station in Solano County along the Capitol Corridor Route, a route which connects Sacramento (the state capital) to San Francisco. There were existing plans to build three more rail stations in Solano County.

The sites for the planned stations were chosen via a two part process. The process contained inherent bias from the beginning.

In the first part, the various incorporated cities of Solano County got together and decided which cities would get a station. My understanding is there was no representation from Travis AFB, which is by far the largest employer in the county and a critical military installation which could, nonetheless, fulfill its mission from just about any other location on the West Coast of the continental United States.

In fact, there has been talk of moving the functions of Travis AFB elsewhere for years because of the high cost of operating out of the San Francisco Bay area. So you should assume that the county does not have a firm claim on the installation to begin with, plus it would gut the local economy to lose it. It was bringing about a billion dollars to the county annually when I lived there nearly more than two decades ago.

The second part of the selection process involved hiring a consultant to select specific sites for the rail stations. But the consultant's hands were tied due to the previous meeting establishing which cities would get a rail station.

Thus, the consultant never actually considered how to place the sites for optimal service within the county. They weren't paid to do that. They were paid to pick "best" sites for the three cities that had already politically won this game.

One of the three stations had its grand opening in April 2018. It is not well located and my analysis suggests that its existence increases the odds that Travis AFB could close and have its functions relocated elsewhere. Given the amount of money at stake should Travis close, I think it would still make sense to eat the cost and move that station.

There are two other planned stations, one in Dixon and one in Benicia. The planned Dixon station is an extremely good idea. I heartily approve of it.

However, the planned Benicia station is a potential environmental disaster in the making and is of questionable value all around. It is located in a critical bird sanctuary, an area where the rails have a long history of gradually sinking under the weight of the train traffic until they are under water due to the marshy conditions of the area. Because it is protected habitat, the ability to develop the area is extremely limited.

I spent a lot of years hoping my student project would do some good in the world and trying to figure out how to make something happen. Over the years, I've tried repeatedly to further that goal.

Among other things, I've written letters to various organizations, had printable brochures on a website at one time, and had a t-shirt and bumper stickers for sale at one time. One whole person actually bought one whole t-shirt.

I've never figured out how to get traction for trying to find some way to get the powers that be to look at my analysis and reconsider the current rail plan in light of it. I couldn't figure that out when I actually lived there and it only got harder to try to find some path forward when I moved away from the San Francisco Bay area many years ago.

I continue to keep my student project available on the web for two reasons. First, I wanted some kind of urban planner type job and it's the only thing I really have which shows any abilities related to that goal.

Second, I still have fantasies that it will yet do some good somehow for Solano County. Stranger things have happened.