50 Wine Train riders step off in St. Helena

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Left to right, St. Helena City Council member Bonnie Schoch, Chamber of Commerce board member Chris Rubio, Napa Valley Wine Train Chief Executive Greg McManus and St. Helena councilmember Eric Sklar celebrate the arrival of the first 50 passengers to leave the Wine Train in St. Helena Friday evening. Photos by John Lindblom/For the Register | Buy photos
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Dr. Alvin Lee Block and Moira Johnston Block, who sold the Napa Valley Wine Train to Vincent DeDomenico in 1980, were among the first 50 passengers to disembark from the train. | Buy photos

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Comment

By John Lindblom
For the Register

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After 30 years of wrangling over whether Napa Valley Wine Train should allow passengers to disembark in St. Helena, the first passengers finally touched St. Helena soil on Friday night.

The train ran a special car from Napa for the Cheers! event the St. Helena business community is throwing on the first Friday of each month.

The train will continue to bring passengers to St. Helena on a trial basis, and then both train operators and city leaders will determine whether to expand efforts.

In past years, the two sides have clashed before the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Supreme Court over what agency governs the railroad and whether the train could let passengers off in town.

7 comment(s)

tomhansen wrote on Jul 4, 2009 7:21 AM:

" Good for the valley tax base. Maybe our taxes will be lowered now. Ha ha.
Every jurisdiction can use a good reliable revenue stream. Good for St. Helena retailers. What goes around comes around. "

UpValleyReader wrote on Jul 4, 2009 10:17 AM:

" My commute went from 22 minutes to 54 minutes. The entire area was clogged with bicyclists cutting through traffic and so much jaywalking you could barely inch through Main Street. It is *not* a good trade off. "

MarkMiwords wrote on Jul 4, 2009 12:13 PM:

" This is good for St. Helena retailers. But I must remind you that a majority of St. Helena merchants do not live in St. Helena. While the merchants may be enjoying the almighty tourist dollar, the locals will need to leave town as goods and services become more and more geared towards the tourist. For me, this is a sad day. The city council sold us out. "

notalwaysright wrote on Jul 4, 2009 1:52 PM:

" The city council always sell us out, they are all tourist. They aren't locals. They just move here, drive the house prices up by paying way more than they are worth and then doing all kinds of things to make life here for us locals worse. They take over the city coucil and inflict their arrogance and flash their weath in our faces just to make our lives stink. "

UpValleyReader wrote on Jul 4, 2009 3:47 PM:

" How come there is this great press for creating a traffic jam and no information on lay-offs that affected so many people? Isn't it important to report all of the news? "

Detritus wrote on Jul 4, 2009 11:45 PM:

" Did anybody buy anything? "

napan1961 wrote on Jul 5, 2009 12:02 AM:

" The traffic jam and jaywalkers were because of the CHEERS event... the 50 people that got off the Wine Train were not the reason... there were hundreds of people up and down Main Street because of the event. "

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