page_title: Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit
section_title: Larkspur segment
hierarchical_section_title: Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit / History / Larkspur segment
caption_attribution_description: English: South portal of the Cal Park Hill Tunnel in November 2018, with SMART track construction at left
context_page_description: Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit is a passenger rail service and bicycle-pedestrian pathway project in Sonoma and Marin counties of the U.S. state of California. When completed, the entire system will serve a 70-mile corridor between Cloverdale in northern Sonoma County and Larkspur Landing in Marin County.
  The first phase of the system, a 43-mile segment between Northern Santa Rosa and Downtown San Rafael, opened to public preview and excursion services on June 29, 2017. Regular service began on August 25, 2017, after Federal Railroad Administration gave the final approval for the Positive Train Control system. The southern two miles of the line was completed to Larkspur with service commencing on December 14, 2019.
context_section_description: The cost to San Rafael of the Andersen Drive crossing of the Larkspur to San Rafael segment is significant. The street was extended by San Rafael in the mid-1990s to cross the tracks on a "temporary road". In July 1997, the California Public Utilities Commission informed the city that by the time SMART planned to operate on the section, the city had to build and pay for restoring the crossing. The estimated cost for that was $6 million in 2012.
  In 2010, the agency received a federal earmark of $2.5 million for technical, environmental and engineering design on the segment. Later in 2010, the revamped Cal Park Hill Tunnel — 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, 25 feet (7.6 m) tall, and 1,100 feet (340 m) long — was opened to pedestrian traffic. The revamping was done at a cost of $28 million, paid equally by Marin County and SMART. The tunnel is used both for the rail right of way between Larkspur and San Rafael and by bicycles and pedestrians.
  In May 2013, the SMART board approved a resolution designating the San Rafael to Larkspur link as its "preferred alternative". The agency submitted a letter to the Federal Transit Administration, and on September 24, 2013, SMART was accepted into its "Small Starts" program. The FY2016 Federal Budget included the funds to construct the Larkspur Extension under the Small Starts Program. Construction contracts were awarded to a joint venture of Stacy and Witbeck and Herzog Contracting Corporation at a cost of $36.3 million, and work commenced by late 2017 with an expected opening of late 2019. In April 2018, SMART was awarded a $22.5 million federal grant for the extension. Final costs for the extension are estimated to total $55.4 million. Train control and crossing system testing along the extension began in August 2019 and was completed by the end of October, whereupon driver training began. Revenue service commenced on December 14, 2019.
  Construction of the Novato Downtown station began significantly after work began on the initial operating segment. It was partially constructed by the system's opening, but the station opened with the Larkspur extension.
caption: South portal of Cal Park Hill Tunnel showing rails and path, November 2018
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