Editorial: SMART’s challenge is to show its worth as a public investment

The leaders of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit are right to keep an eye on its future. In particular, 2029, when its bi-county quarter-cent sales tax expires.

The young rail service is still working on building ridership and meeting the promises made to voters when the tax that launched SMART was passed.

Adding to its challenges is a political hurdle that showed itself in 2020 when SMART sought voter approval for renewing the tax for 30 years. It was soundly rejected, including by Sonoma County voters who in 2008 overwhelmingly endorsed the tax that launched the rail service and plans for a parallel bike path.

In 2020, SMART came up short in coming through on its 2008 promises to have rail service from Cloverdale to Larkspur and fueled criticism for balking at providing detailed ridership data. In addition, the SMART board’s campaign for the renewal was surprisingly short on time and political energy.

It appears its leadership has learned a lesson.

A 2022-23 Marin County Civil Grand Jury report prompted the question, asking SMART if it would keep its service rolling if the sales tax – its primary source of funding – is not renewed before its 2029 expiration.

The question underscores how critical it is right now for SMART to build public support, educate the public on the use and importance of its bi-county tax and continue to increase ridership and service.

Recent actions by the SMART board have been responsive to that challenge.

Its recent decision to explore lowering its fares in order to build ridership was a proactive move. Public transit needs to be accessible and affordable to the general public, not just those who can afford to pay higher fares.

Fares need to take into account that everyone is already paying for SMART with their sales tax.

SMART has also adjusted its schedules, including adding more weekend runs in response to a growing interest in noncommuter service.

The grand jury urged SMART to bolster its public communications to address skepticism about its performance.

SMART needs to promote its service as a comfortable and reliable way to get up and down the Highway 101 corridor.

Its schedule and the location of its stops may not work for everyone, but its riders should be able to spell out why they choose to ride SMART instead of being in their cars stuck in Highway 101’s commute-hour traffic jams.

It took years of marketing and a lowering of fares for the Golden Gate ferries to build their ridership to the public-transit success story they have become.

SMART’s tax is a vital subsidy, just as the ferries are financially supported by Golden Gate Bridge tolls.

Like Golden Gate’s ferries, SMART had had significant success getting state and federal grants. The latest – $32 million in federal funding championed by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) – will go toward extending the service north to Healdsburg and replacing its three freight locomotives with new ones that generate far less emissions of pollutants.

Eddy Cumins, SMART’s general manager, says the new funding is an example of the agency’s success in leveraging its sales tax support in getting state and federal grants.

SMART is a public investment. The 2008 tax measure was needed to get the rails rebuilt and the trains running on those tracks.

It is a significant and impressive achievement.

Renewal of the tax – even for an easier sell of another 20 years – is needed to keep it going. Compared to other taxes, the quarter-cent is a modest outlay, but it is vital to keeping the rail service rolling and growing.

SMART’s leadership has time. It also needs to make wise use of that time by promoting its successes and benefits, by continuing its diligent progress in meeting its 2008 promises – including the bike lane – and being responsive to ever-changing public transportation needs.