History of SPTC

History of the Sacramento-Placerville Transportation Corridor

In July 1991, the Sacramento-Placerville Tranportation corridor Joint Powers Authority (SPTC-JPA) was formed to purchase the Sacramento-Placerville railroad corridor from Southern Pacific Railway Corporation. The four agencies of the SPTC-JPA are:

The County of El Dorado

The County of Sacramento

The Sacramento Regional Transit District

The City of Folsom

In order to preserve the continuity of the corridor, the purchase was made under the protection of Federal law [16 USCS 1247 (d)] which encourages State and local agencies and private interests to acquire, use and preserve rail transportation corridors for future reactivation of rail service.

At the time the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors agreed to participate in the purchase, County staff was directed to prepare a draft Master Plan that would identify alternatives for near-term use of the corridor. This plan, which identifies multiple uses, including excursion trains, trails, and utility easements, is the product of that direction.

Twenty eight (28) of he 53 miles of the Sacramento-Placerville Transportation Corridor purchased by the SPTC-JPA are within El Dorado County, milepost 119.4 (El Dorado/Sacramento County line) to milepost 147.6 at Aoex, on the west end of Placerville. The width of the right-of-way varies from as narrow as 66 feet wide to as wide as 200 feet. To learn more about the various users on the trail visit the following websites:

Friends of El Dorado Trail. Click here to learn more about pedestrian and bicyclist users on the trail.
The El Dorado Western Railroad is the living history program of the El Dorado County Historical Museum operating on the historic Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Click here to read more about the history of the Southern Pacific's Placerville Branch of the railroad.
The Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad was the freight and passenger line completed from Folsom to Placerville in the late 1880's. Click here to read more about the history of the Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad.

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The Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad was the freight and passenger line completed from Folsom to Placerville in the late 1880's. Click here to read more about the history of the Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad.