Marin Voice: Dream big and consider running BART across the Golden Gate Bridge

Rail transportation has finally arrived in Marin; the only problem is it runs in the wrong direction. After decades of being one of the least accessible counties in the Bay Area, the new Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit service brings some benefits of public transportation to the North Bay, but still leaves us disconnected to the rest of the region by running north from San Rafael, rather than south.

Now, more than ever, Marin needs more public transportation via Bay Area Rapid Transit to allow residents to easily access the Bay Area.

Growing up in Marin, the only way to get to San Francisco without a car was via the ferry, biking, the bus, or even just walking right across the bridge — the ferry was always best. Once in the City, everywhere else in the Bay Area was just a BART ride away. How can the entire Bay Area have access to this network except Marin?

This wasn’t supposed to be the case. When BART was first conceived in the 1960s, Marin was one of the original five districts — along with San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, and Alameda — to be a part of the transit network. However, San Mateo pulled out of the plan, causing officials to rescind their invitation to Marin citing two major concerns: structural stability of the Golden Gate bridge to support a rail system, and the economic utility since Marin was mostly rural and scarcely populated.

Today, neither of those reasons apply. For more than 50 years engineering studies have concluded that the Golden Gate Bridge could accommodate BART on a lower deck. A 1955 study by the San Francisco BART Commission found that the Golden Gate Bridge was capable of handling trains, as did a second study in 1961. Similarly, Marin is no longer the pastoral county it was decades ago – at least not along the southern peninsula.

Regarding the cost of this project, the longer we debate about the budget, the higher the price tag. Just this year the ever-inflating California high-speed rail system is set to increase its costs by an additional $1.8 billion. With more delay comes more frustrations of North Bay commuters as tolls continue to rise, gas prices continue to soar and drivers increasingly fight for coveted San Francisco parking.

Marin opponents of BART cite issues with mass transportation ruining the county’s small, idyllic communities. Marin’s commitment to preserving nature — many of our towns are hidden among towering redwoods or tucked behind scenic hills — is a point of pride and contrasts Marin with neighboring counties. BART will not turn our small towns into urban strip malls. Downtown Lafayette, a longtime BART stop, looks indistinguishable from San Rafael or Novato.

The new SMART trains do not pollute our pristine landscape with a crisscrossing of rail lines or additional noise. The added accessibility is a benefit, not a nuisance. Also, it’s not as if each town will be a stop along a Marin BART line. Only having two or three stations in Marin: Novato, the San Rafael bus depot, and one more in the south like Larkspur Landing would be enough to allow for added accessibility to the region without infiltrating every corner of the county. This will finally give Marin locals an accessible option to travel across the Bay Area just like every other resident of the region.

BART would also help diversify Marin, both racially and economically, by allowing residents to commute to jobs all over the Bay Area and ease the congestion by taking cars, and carbon, off our roads.

Marin finally has a train; it just is not the one we were promised. It is time to do what the original plan was: bring BART to Marin.