Sacramento-Placerville Transportation Corridor Reuse Study

El Dorado County Transportation Commission (California)

BAE served as the economics subconsultant for this project that involved analyzing alternative reuse scenarios for an approximately 30-mile long former rail corridor that extends between Placerville and Folsom, CA.

The project team evaluated reuse schemes including a paved multi-use trail, an unpaved trail oriented towards hikers, and retention of rail facilities to accommodate excursion trains.  BAE’s role was to evaluate the potential market demand for use of the facilities under each of the different alternatives, and to evaluate the potential economic impacts and benefits to the immediately surrounding communities.  BAE identified nodes along the corridor where there were opportunities to leverage existing commercial activities and new corridor visitation to stimulate economic development, conducted case studies of the impacts that other similar facilities have had on communities elsewhere in the U.S., projected the potential usage of the different reuse schemes, and estimated the direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts that would flow as a result of day user and overnight visitor attraction and the subsequent spending within the local community.  BAE also estimated potential trail user health benefits stemming from the active transportation options.