Sonoma-Marin rail (#0010)

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) train at San Rafael depot. The SMART system is a new development that returns commuter rail service in Marin and Sonoma Counties. Regular service on the SMART system began in August of 2017. The trains operate over renovated tracks previously owned by the Northwestern and Pacific Railroad (see adjacent # 0005); the system currently runs from San Rafael to the Sonoma County Airport, which is just north of Santa Rosa. Future plans are for SMART trains to run south to Larkspur to provide direct connection to the ferry service into SF, and to run north to Cloverdale.

The Saturday that I rode it the cars were full, partly because the weekend service is more limited but largely because there were very many riders just exploring the line, similar to what I was doing. For a long section of the trip I had a seatmate who lived in the area and rode it for his work – he said that trains were running with heavy loads during the week. The traffic on the parallel US 101 is always very heavy, so hopefully this is taking quite a few cars off the road.

Resources:
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoma%E2%80%93Marin_Area_Rail_Transit
SMART system: www.sonomamarintrain.org