CA: Monterey County Rail Extension project nearer to Caltrain connection

The project to bring Caltrain past its endpoint in Gilroy, through to Salinas continues to roll along as designs of the layover facility in Salinas and track improvements in Gilroy are under review with Union Pacific Railroad.

The Monterey County Rail Extension project will extend passenger rail service from Santa Clara County south to Salinas in Monterey County. The project has already revitalized the downtown Salinas train station, completed in 2021, creating a new multimodal transportation hub there, as well as plans for similar hubs in the communities of Pajaro and Castroville.

The Transportation Agency for Monterey County, the lead agency on the project, says that these multimodal stations will be served by new passenger rail service and bus transit for the residents of Salinas and north Monterey County, Monterey Peninsula and Santa Cruz County, to access Silicon Valley, San Jose, the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. The 2024 California State Rail Plan includes the Monterey County Rail Extension Project in its near-term scenario.

Phase one of the overall Monterey County Rail Extension project was the Kick Start program, which focused on improving the existing Salinas train station to accommodate new passenger rail service connecting Salinas to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Kick Start project also includes phase two, a train layover facility in Salinas for Caltrain, and phase three, making track improvements at Gilroy as well as to its train station.

The current status of the project that will bring Caltrain past Gilroy, south to Salinas includes TAMC coordinating with Union Pacific Railroad on design reviews for the layover facility in Salinas and track improvements at Gilroy.

“Once UPRR’s design review gets advanced to the 90% level, TAMC will be empowered to initiate discussions with UPRR’s Real Estate division over what kind of agreement is needed for access to UPRR property in Salinas and Gilroy and for an operations and maintenance and a track rights agreement with UPRR,” explained Christina Watson, TAMC rail program planner. “Once we have those agreements, TAMC and Caltrans will work with Caltrain on an operations agreement to run trains from Gilroy to Salinas.”

The Coast Mainline is the railroad that links Burbank in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, traveling roughly along the Pacific Coast, and owned by Union Pacific Railroad which must approve all aspects of the project.

Since January 2025, the UPRR design reviews for the layover facility have progressed and are currently entering the 30% stage.

The Caltrain layover facility in Salinas will be situated west of the Intermodal Transportation Center at the end of New Street less than a half-mile from the train station, located at the corner of N. Main and West Market streets, 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.

“TAMC has acquired all of the land required for the project, with the exception of the rights to access UPRR-owned property,” said Watson. “Only UPRR-owned property access rights still remain to be negotiated. No further property acquisition is contemplated at this time.”

Watson said that pending resolution of rights to access UPRR-owned property, the Caltrain layover facility project could initiate construction as soon as the spring or summer of 2027.

As for phase three, Gilroy station and track improvements, Watson said the designs are resubmitting a 25% design package, pursuant to UPRR comments on the prior submittals for each package.

“UPRR is working on implementing a Positive Train Control crash prevention technology along the corridor, starting this year and completing work between Gilroy and San Luis Obispo by 2028,” said Watson.

The implementation of Positive Train Control infrastructure along about 172 miles of the UPRR Coast Subdivision is a federally funded safety project spanning five counties including Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey and San Luis Obispo.

The three phases of the Monterey County Rail Extension project have an estimated total cost of about $81.5 million.

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