MEETING REPORT

Transportation Agency for Monterey County

Glassell Park, 11 July, 2005

Reported by Chris Flescher, RailPAC Associate Director

The MST routes 25/26 (Caltrain Fastrack) will stop running at the end of July. A CMAQ grant provided money for this but it ran out. The routes carried about 1100 passengers per month with farebox recovery around 10% (MST average is 28%). One northbound and one southbound trips were full but all "reverse commute" ones were nearly empty. TAMC is looking for some funding that MST could use as a local match for federal funding, in order to continue bus service. A pending state bill would provide that but a group, called something like State Chamber of Commerce opposes it. The train extension would provide two main advantages over bus service. Not getting stuck in traffic would save about 15 minutes and a transfer would no longer be required. Ridership at MST is increasing, possibly due to high gas prices, and this year could produce record ridership. Several other services have abandoned Salinas or Monterey-San Jose. Greyhound doesn't serve Monterey, Airbus doesn't serve Salinas, Amtrak California no longer goes Monterey-Salinas on the way to San Jose.

In May, the project development team met to narow down alternatives for service improvements. Now 4 alternatives remain. Alt 1: Caltrain SJ-Salinas, recommended with some modifications. Alt 5: Bus rapid transit, kept with modifications. Alt 6: Light rail (probably DMU) on peninsula (Monterey-Castroville) recommended when combined with Caltrain to Salinas, became Alt 7. Alt 8: Express buses, partly on freeways, recommended. The FTA requires TAMC to keep studying enhanced bus service until a mode is chosen because that is the closest to no-build.

There are estimates for cost to construct and run, but lacking ridership estimates, so the cost per rider is unavailable at this time. For Alt 1 and 7, some service (I'm guessing light rail or improved bus) can be added later on, using Reservation and/or Davis Roads. This would link downtown Salinas to Marina, and buses already run there). The FTA prefers building in stages, which can be done for most options. The public doesn't appear to mind buses/trains going through Window On Bay Park as long as they don't stop or layover there. ROW (now bike trail) basses through park just before reaching downtown Monterey.

For Caltrain extension, Castroville and Salinas station layouts are in packets handed out at meeting (and are probably on TAMC website as part of meeting agenda). It looks like the freight building in Salinas will be kept, and turned into a passenger waiting room. In Castroville, Coastal Commission wants to minimize impact on ag. land, so different orientations or parking lots are being considered.


RailPAC Contacts Publications Issues Meeting Reports 2005 Reports 2005-11-16 Capitol 2005-11-10 San Joaquin 2005-11 Announcement 2005-10-24 Bay Area 2005-09-21 Capitol 2005-09-14 LOSSAN 2005-09 Coast and TAMC 2005-09-08 San Joaquin 2005-07-14 San Joaquin 2005-07-11 TAMC 2005-06-25 CASHRA 2005-06-16 LOSSAN 2005-06-15 Capitol 2005-05-30 TAMC 2005-05-12 San Joaquin 2005-04-27 Coast Rail 2005-04-19 LOS-SAN 2005-03-11 San Joaquin 2005-02-16 Capitol 2005 Annual 2005-01 San Joaquin 2005-01 Monterey Membership Links	MEETING REPORT Transportation Agency for Monterey County Glassell Park, 11 July, 2005 Reported by Chris Flescher, RailPAC Associate Director The MST routes 25/26 (Caltrain Fastrack) will stop running at the end of July. A CMAQ grant provided money for this but it ran out. The routes carried about 1100 passengers per month with farebox recovery around 10% (MST average is 28%). One northbound and one southbound trips were full but all "reverse commute" ones were nearly empty. TAMC is looking for some funding that MST could use as a local match for federal funding, in order to continue bus service. A pending state bill would provide that but a group, called something like State Chamber of Commerce opposes it. The train extension would provide two main advantages over bus service. Not getting stuck in traffic would save about 15 minutes and a transfer would no longer be required. Ridership at MST is increasing, possibly due to high gas prices, and this year could produce record ridership. Several other services have abandoned Salinas or Monterey-San Jose. Greyhound doesn't serve Monterey, Airbus doesn't serve Salinas, Amtrak California no longer goes Monterey-Salinas on the way to San Jose. In May, the project development team met to narow down alternatives for service improvements. Now 4 alternatives remain. Alt 1: Caltrain SJ-Salinas, recommended with some modifications. Alt 5: Bus rapid transit, kept with modifications. Alt 6: Light rail (probably DMU) on peninsula (Monterey-Castroville) recommended when combined with Caltrain to Salinas, became Alt 7. Alt 8: Express buses, partly on freeways, recommended. The FTA requires TAMC to keep studying enhanced bus service until a mode is chosen because that is the closest to no-build. There are estimates for cost to construct and run, but lacking ridership estimates, so the cost per rider is unavailable at this time. For Alt 1 and 7, some service (I'm guessing light rail or improved bus) can be added later on, using Reservation and/or Davis Roads. This would link downtown Salinas to Marina, and buses already run there). The FTA prefers building in stages, which can be done for most options. The public doesn't appear to mind buses/trains going through Window On Bay Park as long as they don't stop or layover there. ROW (now bike trail) basses through park just before reaching downtown Monterey. For Caltrain extension, Castroville and Salinas station layouts are in packets handed out at meeting (and are probably on TAMC website as part of meeting agenda). It looks like the freight building in Salinas will be kept, and turned into a passenger waiting room. In Castroville, Coastal Commission wants to minimize impact on ag. land, so different orientations or parking lots are being considered.
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