A North Bay train that carries commuters from a Marin County ferry terminal to a town square in Windsor is considering a major move that could lure a different type of rider: the Wine Country day-tripper.

This is the sort of person who might be drawn to a tiny one-stop-sign town with an outsize reputation for food and wine that was left off the map when Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit was planned decades ago.

Geyserville is an unincorporated community with about 800 residents midway through a big stretch of rural California between Healdsburg and Cloverdale. Its sunbaked brick facades could be the backdrop of an Old West film, if it weren’t for the Teslas and Ford pickups.

By day, cyclists touring two-lane roads sit for coffee and sandwiches alongside tradesmen and ranchers. At night, diners wait in lines for some of the best Italian food around or arrive at a Michelin-starred restaurant with a tasting menu that starts north of $300. In the distance, River Rock Casino glows from its perch in the hills.

“It’s got a great vibe — there aren’t many small towns like this left in Sonoma County,” said Danny Christensen Jr., who owns and operates the Geyserville Inn with his brother.

The idea of SMART in Geyserville brings some unease. Residents worry about loud train horns and whether more visitors will accelerate the same pressures already reshaping Sonoma County towns: rising costs, second homes and locals pushed farther from the places they serve.

Even so, excitement for a station began brewing years ago. Christensen recalled discussions about passenger rail with his father in the ’90s, when local politicians and transportation planners began championing the idea. But when state lawmakers created the SMART district in 2002, they left Geyserville out. Guarding against sprawl, state law governing SMART required any passenger rail station north of Healdsburg to be located within an incorporated area, which required any future trains to speed past Geyserville en route to the city of Cloverdale.

Then last month, SMART showed up at chamber dinners and community meetings to announce they had cleared the legal path for Geyserville to become the train’s next extension. State lawmakers in 2024 changed SMART’s enabling statute to lower the threshold to pass an extension of the tax that provides about half of SMART’s budget, which was big news at the time. But they had also removed the language preventing a station between Healdsburg and Cloverdale.

SMART plans to reach Healdsburg in 2028 and is set to eventually continue north and terminate in Cloverdale, a Wine Country outpost just 10 miles shy of the redwood empire of Mendocino County. Geyserville sits about halfway between them and could be an ideal location for another train stop, SMART officials say.

“Most people have felt that Geyserville has been overlooked,” said DeTraci Regula, executive director and high priestess of Isis Oasis Sanctuary, a retreat center that also runs a small transitional housing program near Geyserville’s main commercial strip.

SMART has, in some ways, had an identity crisis since carrying its first passengers in 2017 through cities and towns in Marin and Sonoma counties along the Highway 101 corridor. This wasn’t BART trundling between major urban centers, and it wasn’t the Napa Valley Wine Train where hosts serve food and libations at reserved tables.

Ridership numbers lagged for years, tested by major regional wildfires, a global pandemic and what has seemed to be a limited local commuter base — the San Rafael resident who works in Santa Rosa, for example.

The train’s proponents embraced the art of the possible. They wanted to create a version of BART to serve small cities and rural communities with growth potential, and give it boutique charm. In reality, the train is not just for workaday commuters. Giants fans crowd trains to the Larkspur ferry. Senior citizens play canasta at tables near cyclists and other travelers watching the train speed through scenic marshlands, past the Mayacamas Mountains and backyard chicken coops. 

Today, ridership numbers are up, increasing 32% between fiscal years 2025 and 2024. And the average weekday ridership reached a new high of 5,455 in May. Seniors and youth ride for free. Voters in June chose to continue paying a quarter-cent sales tax that provides about half of SMART’s funding.

Yet SMART officials are eyeing another persuadable group: those who drive to Sonoma for wine-drinking or gambling or bed-and-breakfast getaways. Maybe they could be nudged out of their cars and onto the train. Perhaps hotel guests in Healdsburg could catch the SMART train to have dinner at one of Geyserville’s buzzy date spots.

This notion certainly was not lost on Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey, who chairs SMART’s board of directors. He cited the ritzy wineries and high-end restaurants that draw people into the Alexander Valley, a lush quilting of vineyards surrounding Geyserville’s town center.

“From a commercial point of view, Geyserville is attractive,” he said, acknowledging that the station might have lower ridership than other SMART stops, given the small population. But if the local hospitality industry started booming, more people could ride to work.

The tracks that for generations carried freight roll just east of the main street, and the train could stop near a park-and-ride that is slated to be redeveloped to include a community park. SMART officials see these potential future developments as a win-win: economic growth for the small town that would also help the train secure grant funding for its eventual northward expansion.

Transportation megaprojects — and the money required to launch them — become more manageable when they are built in small segments. SMART has secured the funding to get to Healdsburg, but the challenge of funding the 18-mile extension to Cloverdale is still at hand. Coursey compared the strategy to rowing a boat to Hawaii and having “an island” rest stop in the middle — if that island had a casino and a few chic tasting rooms.

Julia Gonzalez, a SMART spokesperson, said a Geyserville stop could serve a diverse group of riders, including residents, tourists and local workers including those heading to River Rock Casino, a major employer.

“It would really increase the transportation options in northern Sonoma County,” Gonzalez said.

Christensen said he’d love for inn employees to have the option of taking the train to work, and for visitors to have a safer way to explore all the area has to offer.

“Day-trippers could come up and go wine tasting, visit the great restaurants and not have to worry about driving — that would be fantastic.”

Erik Terreri, a real estate agent who lives in a rural area between Cloverdale and Geyserville, said he’s excited by the possibility of someday boarding the train near his home and spending the day traveling to San Francisco.

“The more stops the better,” Terreri said.

Marshall Turbeville, fire chief of the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District, has lived in Geyserville nearly all his life. He said a train station makes sense for local businesses, although he can’t imagine that it would be a widely used depot and he doesn’t know anyone who would ride it — including himself — due to the nature of jobs requiring vehicles and social lives centered at home.

“I think it’s cool,” Turbeville said. “But it’ll definitely change the town.”

Gretchen Crebs, owner of the Bosworth & Son mercantile store, said she hopes a station would bring a gentle boost rather than a transformation. She imagines it as a “depot into town,” leading visitors into a potential new community park and, beyond it, the Great Redwood Trail, a paved bike path envisioned to stretch more than 300 miles from San Francisco to Humboldt Bay. SMART is managing construction of the trail’s southern stretch, which hugs the railroad tracks.

But she had one big caveat.

“We don’t want to become the next Healdsburg,” Crebs said.

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