The North San Francisco Bay Area has lacked passenger rail for decades—but the process of hiring the staff necessary to operate the line on a daily basis has been complicated by the cost of housing in the area.
"The high cost of housing in Marin and the Bay Area is making it hard for the fledgling SMART commuter rail service to find people to pilot its trains," reports Mark Prado. The
"Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency is set to launch service on a 43-mile line stretching from downtown San Rafael to the Santa Rosa Airport later this year," explains Prado, and to recruit engineers, signal technicians, and vehicle maintenance technicians, the agency board recently approved an 11 percent pay increase.
In the region, SMART has to compete with BART, Caltrain, Amtrak, and Altamont Commuter Express—none of which is made easier by the high costs for housing in the region.
Read the full story: North Bay housing costs have SMART scrambling for engineers
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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40 years after approval, Chicago breaks ground on new park
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California’s ‘unrecognizable’ water plan may go down the drain
After four years of regulatory processes, water agencies say the plan to overhaul how cities and farms take water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has changed dramatically.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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