20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY november 21-27, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com Monterey-Salinas Transit’s SURF! project is hurtling ahead at great expense. Is it worth it? By David Schmalz Wave Energy The morning is sunny and clear in Salinas on Nov. 7, and at 7:25am, Monterey-Salinas Transit’s Line 20 bus, which travels between Salinas and Monterey, departs from the Salinas Transit Center with nine passengers on board. At 7:39am, as the bus approaches the Imjin Parkway intersection on Reservation Road, the queue of cars in line to turn left backs up around 200 yards as the bus carries on down Reservation. After a few stops on the way, the bus pulls into the Marina Transit Center at 7:46am carrying 10 passengers. When the doors open, two more passengers board, and the bus remains idling for about five minutes before departing at 7:51am. At 7:54am, the bus makes a left turn on Del Monte Boulevard, and after a stop at Palm Avenue, merges onto the freeway at 7:57am with 13 passengers aboard the 40-seat coach. Most passengers are keeping quietly to themselves, either closing their eyes or checking their phones, while two men sitting near each other in the front are having a conversation that is mostly drowned out by the white noise of the bus. Traffic is slow on Highway 1 southbound, but still flowing, and then it becomes stop-and-go after reaching the Imjin Parkway overpass, as a line of cars wait to merge onto the freeway. For the next several minutes, traffic oscillates between stop-and-go and flowing slowly, and at 8:14am the bus gets off the freeway in Sand City at the Del Monte Boulevard exit. Three passengers get off the bus in Seaside before it pulls into the Sand City Station at 8:19am, when there are a total of 10 passengers on board. Only this one gets off. Could the 54-minute trip have been made faster if there were a busway, running along the rail tracks west of Highway 1, that shaved off some time in traffic? Maybe, but if the bus had to make another stop—in this case, by pulling off the busway to stop at a yet-to-bebuilt transit station at 5th Street in Marina in The Dunes development— maybe not. Is it worth spending at least $90 million to save a few minutes for a few people every day, all while paving over a core section of the Monterey Branch rail line? The California Coastal Commission and others in positions of influence have said yes. Why? According to Carl Sedoryk, MST’s general manager, the first meeting about a potential bus rapid transit road along the Monterey Branch Line took place at Embassy Suites in Seaside in December 2003. It was just three months after the Transportation Agency for Monterey County, on Sept. 12, 2003, acquired the Monterey Branch Line from Southern Pacific for $9.23 million using funds from Prop. 116, a 1990 state ballot measure that set aside nearly $2 billion for the purpose of establishing passenger and commuter rail systems in California. But years went by, and according to Todd Muck, TAMC’s executive director, the funds were never there to reestablish rail service on the line, which An early rendering of the SURF! project as a bus heads south by the turnoff road to the planned 5th Street Station. As approved by the Coastal Commission, the busway will be on the tracks, not beside them, in order to save more habitat. MST
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