Oakland leaves Crows Landing short-haul rail project up in air

Oakland leaves Crows Landing short-haul rail project up in air Port of Oakland officials' revelation last week that they were no longer interested in a proposed short rail line from Crows Landing has developers of the inland intermodal project and local government officials scrambling to get talks with the port back on track.
   The $52 million rail plan, a key component in developer PCCP West Park's plan to remake the Crows Landing Naval Air Station into a modern rail and industrial complex, seeks to upgrade track along an 80-mile route between Crows Landing and the Port of Oakland. Part of the project's first phase of construction and set for completion in 2011, the rail component calls for several 50-car trains loaded with freight containers to move via the proposed route through the Altamont Pass between the Oakland port and the redevelopment project site in Northern San Joaquin Valley. Once the containers reach Crows Landing, they would be loaded onto trucks for distribution throughout the Central Valley. Valley agricultural products and other regional products could be returned via the same rail line to the port for export.
   Last week, Oakland port officials called the short rail plan's secondary to long-haul problems that need to be addressed first. The Stanislaus Council of Governments, the region's transportation planning body for the Crow's Landing area, has included the short-rail project in the county's wish list of projects seeking state infrastructure bond funds. Since the group also lists the Oakland port as a possible source of matching funds, the port's lack of support for the plan could be a critical blow to the air station development. Officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the lead transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county Bay Area, also announced disinterest in the PCCP rail plan, saying more pressing solutions need to be addressed for area residents.
   PCCP, announced by local officials as the winning bidder on the Crow's Landing development project back in February, is halfway through a yearlong effort to obtain development agreements for starting the $440 million 4,500-acre project. The development agreement with the county allows PCCP until April 2008 to wrap up the agreements.
   Stanislaus County officials hope to begin talks with the port soon to clarify port officials' positions on the project.