CA: TAMC meeting highlights need to prepare for Salinas Caltrain extension

“We can really draw a lot of tourism, a lot of knowledge about this great state here, because it all began here,” said former Congressman Sam Farr, “but we haven’t really committed to what the opportunities are in the Salinas Valley.”

Farr, a member of the Salinas Valley Tourism and Visitors Bureau Board, said this during the Transportation Agency for Monterey County Rail Policy Committee meeting held in the California Welcome Center in Salinas on Monday, expressing the need to prepare for the Salinas Caltrain extension.

Salinas and the Salinas Valley have earned the moniker “Salad Bowl of the World” over generations due to local agricultural production, which today stands as a multi-billion-dollar industry and the number one economic engine in Monterey County. That industry was fostered by Southern Pacific Railroad, which moved produce from the late 1800s to the 1950s in refrigerated rail cars across the United States.

The TAMC Rail Policy Committee meets 10 times a year and this meeting was held at the Salinas train station area now known as the Intermodal Transportation Center, in downtown Salinas. That’s where Caltrain, a commuter rail line, will establish its southernmost endpoint, projected to begin in 2028.

Salinas became the wealthiest city per capita in the U.S., thanks to its booming agricultural industry, one year before the great depression in 1929, said Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue.

“We’re at a similar moment where we need to think strategically about rail service in this city,” he said. “And we need it sooner rather than later because it’s potentially transformational.”

TAMC’s Monterey County Rail Extension project, which will bring Caltrain from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Salinas Valley, consists of three phases.

Phase I, dubbed the Kick Start Project, focuses on improving the existing Salinas train station to accommodate new passenger rail service connecting Salinas and the Bay Area, and making track improvements at Gilroy to allow through trains to stop at the Gilroy train station and continue to Salinas.

Phase II is the Pajaro/Watsonville Multimodal Transit Hub which is proposed for the unincorporated community of Pajaro to connect Santa Cruz to new passenger rail service between Salinas and the Bay Area.

Phase III is the Castroville Mulitmodal Station which will be in the southeastern part of Monterey County in the unincorporated community of Castroville to connect the Monterey Peninsula to new passenger rail service between Salinas and the Bay Area.

The Kick Start Project transformed the Salinas train station site into the Intermodal Transportation Center to accommodate new passenger rail service and completed it in January 2021 at a cost of about $11.2 million. The Intermodal Transportation Center at the corner of North Main and Market streets includes a new direct access point to downtown Salinas with the extension of Lincoln Avenue across Market Street, a five-bay bus transfer area, bike lanes and bike lockers, safe pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, and commuter parking.

The Kick Start Project also includes constructing the Caltrain layover facility at a cost of about $25 million and making track improvements to Gilroy to allow through trains to stop at the Gilroy train station at a cost of about $16 million.

“We’ve been working on this project since the 1990s so these projects take awhile,” said TAMC Director of Planning Christina Watson. “We have now full funding for the construction of the project.”

Watson explained that TAMC has been working with Union Pacific, which merged with Southern Pacific in 1996, on the design phase for packages 2 and 3 and include the Salinas Layover Facility and Gilroy track connections.

There was a “milestone site visit” walk through with Union Pacific in Salinas in May, she said.

“That will allow us to move forward into the 30% design review with Union Pacific,” said Watson. “They are the host railroad for the corridor south of San Jose and we need their review of the designs because we’re impacting their railroad, we need their permission to run the service, and we need their permission to have construction easements in their property.”

TAMC is also coordinating with Caltrain, Caltrans, and Capital Corridor on various operation scenarios so that it can have the most robust transit service and rail service to Salinas, she said.

That service would encompass travel northward between Salinas and the Bay Area and southward to San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles.

Watson said concerning TAMC right-of-way acquisitions, it has purchased all of the private properties needed for the layover facility as well as easements from Union Pacific.

The Caltrain layover facility will be situated west of the Intermodal Transportation Center at the end of New Street less than a half-mile from the train station and will consist of a crew base building for operating personnel that includes lockers, restrooms, a shared office space, and other relevant facilities, but will not include sleeping quarters.

The layover facility would connect to the Coast Mainline, the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, which are used by Union Pacific Railroad freight trains and by Amtrak’s Coast Starlight rail cars.

The plan to construct a train crew base building, storage shed, fencing and lighting, will also include a new platform that extends to the train station and which would be used by passengers boarding Caltrain.

But in Farr’s eyes, the Intermodal Transportation Center’s main structure – the train station – is in desperate need of attention.

Farr said that he has boarded a train from Salinas to Seattle and of all the train stations between the two points, “this was the worst.”

He highlighted the fact that in addition to neglecting the ground’s proper maintenance, there is a tremendous lack of signage.

“Who’d want to get off here? They don’t even know anything about it,” said Farr. “They don’t know this is Steinbeck Country, they don’t know that it’s the gateway to the Monterey Peninsula, they don’t know that this where California was born.”

Farr said the Intermodal Transportation Center, with its historic train depot, the more than 150-year-old Southern Pacific freight depot which now houses both the California Welcome Center and the Regional Heritage Museum, the First Mayor’s House, the Railroad Museum and other points of interest, could become a huge economic center.

The Salinas Valley Tourism and Visitors Bureau has branded the area Salinas City Heritage Park and was recently recognized by Visit California for its ideas and plans for new regional tourism activities, but that takes resources and buy-in from all regional stakeholders which then could feed other tourism initiatives.

“The potential for economic development here is greater than any other place in Monterey County, I sincerely believe that,” said Farr who added that is the reason he joined the Salinas Valley Tourism and Visitors Bureau Board, “to promote this.”

He envisions a restaurant on the property that visitors and locals could patronize, as well as other businesses where a traveler could grab flowers, artichokes or other produce, or a bottle of wine, all from Monterey County, and disembark at their final destination with a bit of what the Salad Bowl of the World offers.

“All we have to do is put some money into this,” said Farr. “Fixing up all these buildings, painting them, getting a lot of signage out there, we could get private sector help with that, and then getting this damn rail train … let’s make it happen.”

Rail Policy Committee members include King City Mayor Michael LeBarre, Monterey County District 2 Supervisor Glenn Church, District 4 Supervisor Wendy Root Askew, District 5 Supervisor Kate Daniels, Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado, Monterey Councilman Ed Smith, Salinas Councilman Andrew Sandoval, Sand City Mayor Mary Ann Carbone and Seaside Mayor Ian Oglesby.