photo credit: Sonoma-Marin Area Transit
Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore, Congressman Jared Huffman, SMART General Manager Eddy Cumins,
SMART Board Vice Chair Melanie Bagby, Healdsburg Councilmember Ariel Kelley, and SMART Board Chair
Eric Lucan pictured on Healdsburg's aging railway bridge over the Russian River. The bridge will need to
be replaced as part of SMART's expansion north.

Soon enough, you could be hopping on and off at Hudson Street, also known as the Depot.

It’s been the imagined, anointed destination since SMART’s early days, and revival of the Hudson Street Depot is getting closer.

Something SMART General Manager Eddy Cumins said hasn’t always been a guarantee

"A year, year and a half ago, people were saying we were never gonna make it to Healdsburg," Cumins said. "But I don't think anybody thinks that today."

Cumins and others at the transit agency favor a downtown station just a block west of the Healdsburg Plaza.

An accessibility case could be made for that location because the Hudson Street Depot is just under a half mile from downtown Healdsburg, via the Foss Creek Pathway, an estimated seven to ten minute walk.

But a recent decision by Healdburg’s city council directing staff to focus on the Hudson Street location all but locks in the old train depot as the planned SMART station. A decision Healdsburg's mayor supports.

"There's a lot of data that we just don't have to prove a different alternative than what has already been researched, studied, vetted through the community, baked into our general plans, everything else," Healdsburg Mayor David Hagele said. "And so for me, that leans me toward the existing site."

In the short term, a Hudson Street Depot station would spare the heavily trafficked five-way roundabout along Healdsburg Avenue, and other intersections in the city from new rail crossings.

But as Healdsburg’s Public Works Director Larry Zimmer noted, only for so long.

"Eventually SMART will be going to Cloverdale," Zimmer said. "And all of those crossings will be implemented in the future."

Zimmer also said existing plans to use the Hudson Street Depot as a transit hub, "as envisioned isn't feasible at this time," Zimmer said. "Sonoma County Transit...will not be serving that with their Route 60 or their regional bus line."

According to Zimmer, route accessibility and efficiency are the two main issues preventing bus connections to the Hudson Street Depot.

While members of the city council say they want more community feedback, Councilmember Ron Edwards said what he has seen so far hasn’t been in support for a downtown station.

"So I need to hear those stories," Edwards said. "I need to, to know who they are, hear from them, because I haven't at this point."