(rshsdepot) Dixon, CA

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From The Daily Democrat.

 

Bernie Wagenblast

 

Transportation Communications Newsletter

 

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/ 

 

 

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New life for old Dixon Depot




By JASON MASSAD/MediaNews Group

 

 

Country music legend Johnny Cash famously sang, "I hear a train a comin',
it's comin' round the bend." 

Those lyrics reflected the hopes of the hundred-plus crowd of Dixon
residents, businessmen and county transportation officials who gathered at
the new Dixon Transportation Center Saturday. 

Now that the ribbon is cut, the center will begin serving as a hub for local
and express buses, Dixon's popular Readi-Ride transit service and as a
commuter transfer station. 

But one of the major goals of the station, an attractive mustard yellow and
brown-trimmed depot that hearkens back to Dixon's simpler railroad days, is
to lure a passenger train service to come around the bend, said Dixon Mayor
Mary Ann Courville. 

"Passenger trains started fading away" with the rise of the automobile in
the 1960s, Courville told an enthusiastic crowd. "The trend is now toward
putting traffic back on the tracks." 

Specifically, Dixon transportation leaders are looking to make their station
one of the next stops along the popular Capitol Corridor train service,
which runs all the way north of Sacramento to San Jose. 

A little ahead of the noon schedule, the Capitol Corridor train stopped in
Dixon Saturday on a ceremonial trip, and as a way to show the Dixon crowd
what could be. 

Current projections say the train service won't make Dixon a stop until
2015. 

But the new depot, a historic recreation of Dixon's old station, has
officials hoping that their efforts could shrink that timeline. 

City workers even dug up an old sign, weathered and painted white, that
reads in simple block letters - DIXON. 

The sign won't be enough for a train stop, but it's a step in the right
direction, say city leaders. 

The next phase of the station is to build a platform from the depot to the
train tracks, which could host commuters waiting for a ride to work in as
little as five years, officials hope. 

Courville made her pitch for that accelerated timeline standing on a stage,
accompanied by a school band, and flanked by local and regional
transportation leaders. 

"I believe it will be a lot sooner than (2015)," Courville told the
audience. "All we need is money. That has never stopped us before." 

Measure H, a proposed half-cent sales tax for transportation on the June 6
ballot, could be all the extra funding needed to speed a train along to
Dixon. 

In fact, the $1.6 billion in revenues that would be reaped by the tax over
30 years, could secure stops of the Capitol Corridor in Dixon, the
in-progress Fairfield-Vacaville station and one planned for Benicia. 

"Measure H really is an investment in your community," said Suisun City
Mayor Jim Spering, the county's Metropolitan Transportation Commission
representative. "It's so we can see projects just like this." 

The county currently has a Capitol Corridor stop in Suisun City. That
station serves many commuters conveniently, including one of the county's
transportation officials. 

Jayne Bauer, the spokeswoman for the Solano Transportation Authority, takes
the train from Sacramento, near her Carmichael home, all the way to Suisun
City every work day. 

The authority's office is within easy walking distance of One Harbor Center,
a successful redevelopment project that houses the STA and other offices. 

The Capitol Corridor is starting to become recognized nationally as a
successful service, say transportation officials. 

It's currently the third largest rail corridor in the country and demand is
growing. 

The government-run service recovers nearly 50 percent of its costs at the
fare box, which is considered good for public transportation. By September,
the corridor will run 32 of the high-speed commuter trains, corridor
officials said. 

As an old freight rumbled by on the nearby tracks, Spering again pumped up
an affable Dixon crowd scattered around the plaza of the new transportation
center. 

"We're going to hear that sound, but it's going to be Capitol Corridor train
that stops in Dixon," he said. 

While the goal of the transportation center is to land a commuter train, the
station is hoped to be an emerging civic gem in Dixon. 

The Dixon Chamber of Commerce plans to move into the new building sometime
after the Dixon May Fair this month. 

"We'll be more visible to the public," said Marcie Marania, a chamber
representative. 

The Chamber of Commerce will, of course, promote the city's burgeoning
business scene from the new station. But the building will also serve as a
historical touchstone for visitors and city residents as well. 

The history of Dixon will be presented in the building in the same way as
interpretative centers in museums, said city officials. 

It's fitting that Dixon's history be presented at a train station. For many
of its pioneer years, the city relied on the railroad. 

So much so, that the United Methodist Church of Dixon, originally in
Silveyville, was hauled into town so that it could be closer to the people.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1357
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org