For three years now, a light rail track has been under construction near the Bruceville entrance of Cosumnes River College. The question is if this is a good or bad addition to campus?

This project for the Blue Line, the light rail line of the Sacramento Regional Transit system, dates back to December of 2008 when a document was issued and a Record of Decision was received during that time. The preliminary engineering for the project was completed in 2009, according to the Blue Line website.

In late 2011, construction of the light rail station began. Since then, workers have been making progress in its construction.

It may be taking a while for it to be finished, but in the end, it will be a positive thing for some people who may need to take the light rail train.

Currently, people who need to take the light rail, such as CRC students or people who need to get to the light rail station who aren’t always students, rely on taking an RT bus to either Meadowview or Florin Road to the light rail train to get to where they need to be.

There is an E-Tran bus that takes people to Meadowview, but it is only available at certain times of the day. On a personal note, I have seen some people asking the driver of the particular bus, that mostly goes through Elk Grove, if it is heading out to Meadowview.

The driver tells them that it is only going through Elk Grove at that point. The only other option for those people is to take an RT bus that goes out that way.

As for the light rail station that is currently being built, it will likely save people the trouble in having to take a bus route that goes out to Meadowview or Florin Road to catch the light rail train if they need to go somewhere.

When it is finished, light rail passengers won’t have to worry about taking a bus to get to a light rail station when it is certain that they can take the light rail from CRC to where they need to go.

Now what will this say about RT or E-Tran, whose routes may go to the Meadowview Light Rail Station?

For E-Tran, it’s possible that their route towards Meadowview might be done with when the construction is done. As for RT, some passengers who go towards Meadowview or Florin may not need to go to the light rail station and would probably be going somewhere else if they caught the bus route that goes out to either area.

One of the downsides to the construction is that parking lot F is still closed off that is an inconvenience for some people who need to park their cars.

The workers may need that lot to have their trucks parked there while they work on the construction. However, many students still need to park somewhere and there could just be a portion of that lot that is closed off for the workers while the rest can be for whoever needs to park their cars.

The light rail station at CRC may give passengers the route they need and allow them not to worry about traveling to a light rail station to get to where they need to go.