That big clock is finally ticking for the train’s arrival in Healdsburg—it’s no longer only a memory or a pipe dream. Last week brought the news that the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) District had been awarded an $81 million grant from the state to extend the rail service from its current terminus, at the Sonoma County Airport, though Windsor to Healdsburg’s northern city limit by 2028—including construction of a new or remodeled rail bridge over the Russian River.
“This is such a huge victory for the residents of northern Sonoma County,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg native. “We can’t wait to get the shovels in the ground and move SMART full steam ahead into Healdsburg!”
McGuire was one of several public officials crowing about the grant announcement—James Gore, Ariel Kelley and Deborah Fudge all shared the brag, and with good reason given their longstanding service with local transportation agencies. “Adding Healdsburg to the SMART network builds on investments already made in the system and will help SMART’s ridership reach new heights,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, a member of several Bay Area transportation boards.
Even as the huzzahs and dollars rain down, eyes in Healdsburg are turning toward the two old buildings at the former NWP depot on Hudson Street and wondering what part in the coming drama this location will play.
Lytton Extension
The $81 million from the state’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) is being matched by $188 million in other secured and pending federal, state, regional and local funds, including two pending grants to build out not only the 5.5-mile rail section from Windsor to Healdsburg, but a little-heralded 3.3-mile segment from the depot to Healdsburg’s northern city limits at Lytton Road as well.
The announcement from SMART’s communications office emphasized that SMART’s goal is to extend the rail line and pathway all the way to Cloverdale, arguing that “SMART’s northern extension will reduce congestion on major roads like Highway 101, offer safe and reliable alternative travel choice, foster economic growth through transit-oriented development, and improve access to jobs, education, and healthcare.”
As well as completing almost nine miles of track between Windsor and Healdsburg, the combined funds will be used to complete critical segments of the SMART Pathway, also known as the Foss Creek Pathway in Healdsburg and the Great Redwood Trail more broadly.
To fully fund the project, however, is conditional upon two current applications for a total of $91 million in additional grants, which will be announced in June 2025. Julia Gonzalez, SMART’s communications director, said, “SMART is not waiting to hear the results of the two pending grants. SMART is currently preparing design-build contract documents and expects to select a contractor by summer 2025.” Construction would begin a year later, with “the goal of launching passenger rail service to Healdsburg by the end of 2028.”
Depot Questions
Although it’s unclear how much of the current $81 million award, or the expected $91 million, would go not only to building a new passenger platform but to possibly also upgrading Healdsburg’s historic depot site, currently partially rebuilt in 2011 but once again boarded up.
Though the city went through a months-long crisis of doubt, in January 2024 the City Council finally settled on the Hudson Street Depot as the favored location for a SMART station.
At one point it was proposed to locate the SMART station itself as close as possible to the Healdsburg Roundabout, essentially bypassing the old depot, to encourage foot traffic downtown. But SMART, which owns the two buildings as part of its acquisition of Northwestern Pacific Railroad assets, has an interest in their fate, and the city and business community are already giving some extra thought to the fate of the Harmon Street Depot.
“We’ve been doing some preliminary brainstorming about those buildings,” said City Manager Jeff Kay, though there has not been any feasibility analysis on the potential for remodeling. He agreed that “a civic-minded use like a visitors center or Chamber office could make sense,” but again the evaluation process is just beginning.
“As SMART’s construction schedule becomes more clear, I expect that process to pick up steam. There will surely be a public engagement process before any decisions are made,” Kay said.
Tallia Hart, CEO of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, also seemed intrigued by the possibilities. “A remodeled Healdsburg Depot could offer a unique space to welcome and inform visitors, provided there’s alignment and partnership with entities like SMART and the City,” she wrote in an email to the Tribune. “We believe a civic-minded use could bring new energy to this historic space, benefiting both locals and visitors alike.”
Precedence lies in at least three other historic depot buildings being recycled into other purposes, or perhaps elevated to them. In Petaluma, where SMART has been involved since 2003 in revitalizing the former Lakeview Street Depot, the buildings now serve not only as the location of the passenger platform but as the Petaluma Visitors Center and the Petaluma Arts Center.
In Santa Rosa, the depot built in 1903 has now become the Santa Rosa Visitors Center and California Welcome Center, and the Railroad Square neighborhood has become a busy antiques and restaurant neighborhood.
Windsor’s former rail depot underwent extensive remodeling several years ago and now serves as the public location of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center, a few steps away from the Windsor Green and Town Center.
Will we see a similar repurposing of the century-old Hudson Street Depot in Healdsburg? Expect discussions and public meetings to begin soon.
On the other hand, Cloverdale evidently made the leap too soon. In 1998 the City of Cloverdale built a new train depot on the east side of town, off the South Cloverdale Boulevard highway intersection. It still awaits the arrival of SMART in town, which is not part of the current $81 million grant package.
