www.montereycountynow.com november 21-27, 2024 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 he says experts determined would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. So the tracks just sat there, not having been used since the former Fort Ord shut down in 1994, and Southern Pacific was able to pocket over $9 million of taxpayer money for what had become a stranded asset. Once TAMC acquired the line, it remained a stranded asset—it was just owned by the public. As TAMC’s yearslong effort to establish some sort of rail service on the line foundered, the possibility of bus rapid transit gained momentum. In 2017—after Monterey County voters in 2016 approved Measure X, a 0.375-percent transaction tax to fund local transportation projects—TAMC planned to spend $15 million on the development of the busway in its Measure X Strategic Plan. (Due to escalating costs, that number increased by $3.2 million, then in 2023, the TAMC board approved giving another $9.2 million to the project, bringing TAMC’s total contribution to $27.4 million.) So MST got to work, and in 2019, its officials met with staff from the Coastal Commission to give an overview of the proposed busway. MST staff were told the project as proposed was not allowable under the Coastal Act, due to the impact on environmentally sensitive dune habitat. A Coastal Commission report outlining communications with MST staff about the project states, “MST still decided to continue to pursue the project notwithstanding the Commission staff advice to pursue alternatives instead.” MST then reviewed a slew of alternatives for the project, including using local roads, and a busway within Caltrans’ right of way of Highway 1, but deemed them all infeasible for a variety of reasons. For example, Sedoryk says a buson-shoulder busway would likewise impact dune habitat, as the dropoff on the shoulder is steep and would require tons of fill over dune habitat. A busway down the median of the highway was likewise considered infeasible because it would require building infrastructure to get buses to and from the median, which Sedoryk says would also have environmental impacts, not to mention the cost. In the years after 2019, MST lined up its funding sources for the project, which included up to $35.5 million of federal funds. Momentum for the busway called SURF! started to build. In June 2021, MST approved SURF! with an environmental analysis called a mitigated negative declaration, meaning that MST didn’t plan to do a full environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The next month, Keep Fort Ord Wild and the Open Monterey Project filed a lawsuit against MST, arguing that the busway required a full environmental review. The project stalled for a time, but in February 2022, State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced SB 922, a bill that would exempt transportation projects from CEQA if they advanced the state’s climate, public safety and public health goals. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law in September 2022, and the lawsuit was dismissed in July 2023. Meanwhile, MST officials were pushing the project forward, despite Coastal Commission staff continuing to reiterate that the project was “not approvable” under the Coastal Act because of its impact on dune habitat. In April 2024, following Coastal Commission staff meetings with officials from California Public Utilities Commission’s railroad division and the California Transportation Commission, it appeared there were “fatal problems” associated with the project given that the proposed busway was incompatible with Prop. 116 funds, which TAMC used to purchase the Monterey Branch line—as stipulated by the CTC when it released the funds for the purchase, TAMC had a 10-year deadline to establish rail on the line, or the money was to be refunded to the state. On June 5, 2024, the TAMC board approved entering into “curative” negotiation with the CTC to pay the agency back, which would also free up the rail easement to be used for a busway. Just two days prior, on June 3, Coastal Commission staff met with MST staff, and according to a Coastal Commission report, “reiterated both strong support for the project objectives and strong admonition that it was The view from inside MST’s Line 20 bus on Thursday, Nov. 7 as it heads south on Highway 1 in rush hour traffic. David Schmalz
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