Healdsburg Without A Car

A Boat, A Train, And
A Stroll To The Plaza

A boat, a train and two walks: the passenger's view of SMART's extension north

A day in Healdsburg has always begun with a drive. An hour and a half on Highway 101, a parking search near the Plaza, and a decision about who isn't drinking.

In December 2028, there will be another way in. Healdsburg becomes the first of Wine Country's best-known towns that people can reach from San Francisco by scheduled passenger train. No town in Napa Valley has that, and neither does Sonoma.

The town had trains once. The first arrived in July 1871, and passenger service ended in 1958. For the seventy years since, Healdsburg has been a place people drive to: visitors, second-home owners, and most of the people who work there. SMART's general manager has noted that 85 percent of the downtown workforce commutes in each day.

The return comes with a nine-mile extension north from Windsor. It is fully funded with $269 million in grants, and in June, voters in Sonoma and Marin extended SMART's sales tax through 2059. Survey and drilling work began along the line this spring, and construction starts in 2027.

Seen from the passenger's side, the trip from San Francisco breaks into four legs:

  1. The boat. The Golden Gate Ferry leaves the Ferry Building and crosses the bay to Larkspur.

  2. The first walk. The SMART platform sits about half a mile from the ferry terminal, across a pedestrian bridge over Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. SMART puts the transfer at 8 to 30 minutes, depending on the walker.

  3. The train. North through Novato, Petaluma, Santa Rosa and Windsor, then across the Russian River on a new bridge replacing one built in the 1870s. The new crossing will also carry a path linking the SMART Pathway to Healdsburg's Foss Creek trail.

  4. The second walk. From the platform to the Plaza, a few minutes on foot either way.

Where the platform sits is the one detail still open. The city has long planned on the historic depot on Hudson Street, about a third of a mile from the Plaza. A downtown site on Vine Street, a tenth of a mile away, has its own advocates, including council member Ariel Kelley, who sits on SMART's board. SMART owns the right-of-way at both and is gathering feedback.

From December 2028, a day in Healdsburg can begin at the Ferry Building, and everyone at dinner on the Plaza can order the wine.