Western Railroad Discussion > Monterey Branch Update

Here is a followup to our Monterey Branch Line posting from last week.  Mason and I testified at the TAMC meeting and brought the uncomfortable details out in public.  The agency voted to direct the lobbyist to try and amend proposition 116.  However, there were some notable officials that skipped the meeting and chose to connect remotely, making it so their vote did not count. They barely had a quorum. We did receive support from the City of Marina to renew our lease do to expire in November along with the chair too.

We are now represented by Downey Brand, a sizeable Sacramento law firm with three lawyers assigned to the case.   This will be expensive, but sales have skyrocketed this spring with huge numbers of bookings coming in to ride our fleet.  We have no problem feeding it to the lawyers. This will be an uphill battle for the agency to push through an amendment to allow the busway in place of rail.

Our battle was featured on the local news tonight:  https://kion546.com/news/2024/03/29/surf-project-proposal-may-impact-marina-handcar-tour-program



 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Good piece nice work by all involved. Bummer on this deal. I hope something gets worked out. I didn't look at the plans closely if those were posted in the other thread but how much of the handcar track is slated for removal and is there no hope for a shoo-fly or something?

Seems like the tourism-Marina angle is something that might be worth looking at. I suppose you have looked into that. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/24 00:20 by phthithu.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the biggest proponents of the bus project have a direct or indirect conflict of interest.  If the bus project doesnt put money directly into their pockets, then its putting money into their friends pockets and the some sort of quid going on.   Its so common that some of these small town politicos think quids and self interest is legal.   If your lawyers can find the graft,  the bus project will die a quick death, and maybe even some jerks will get to visit the graybar hotel.

In the meantime, hopefully the state will decide that using state funds earmarked for rail transprtation use, have to be used for same.   Without objection, the TAMC could probably get an amendment to use the funds for bus transportation, but with objection will be a lot harder, unless they have an in at SAC somewhere...

Going to court over it is always a toss up, but at east you've got documents as they stand on your side, and Sacramento lawyers.

And  if you're lucky, you'll find that some ppl in SAC and in Monterey county dont like each other...even if they are in the same party..in which case SAC will be happy to tell the TAMC to go to hell....

Wishing you all the best of luck.

Tod, 
I hope you sent information on this to Paul Miller, Publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone.  The Carmel Pine Cone probably has a higher readership and is far more reaching than the Monterey Herald. 

Skip Marquard
Carmel Valley, CA

Sounds like TAMC better figure out a way for the tracks and busway to run side by side.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Go get 'em Todd!

Bravo, Todd!

Todd, 

Thanks for continuing to push on this. 

Steve

I passed along that KION link to a friend who wanted a good source to understand the issue to recommend to friends.  Well put, Todd.

mapboy

It is a no-brainer to make that rail a "final link" in a regional rail plan to connect the greater Bay Area (and Sacramento) to Monterey, and it's amazing Aquarium, which gets HUGE visitation.  They need to run the trains all the way down into and past Seaside, to the current "end of track" near the car tunnel.  Then, shuttle buses take you to the aquarium.  People would love to take the train, visit, and go home, or stay overnight and go home the next day.

Traffic contunes to worsen down there.  The LAST thing needed is a busway.  The FIRST thing needed is a rail connection to Monterey, WHICH EXISTS, but must be rehabbed.

I will write some emails / letters to agencies that Todd listed.  Some time ago, I spoke directly with our State Attorney General, Mr. Bonta, and impressed upon him the urgent need to deal with the homeless problem.  Lo and behold, Prop. 1 appears to require getting homeless people off the streets into structured settings (which I strongly urged--no  more blocked sidewalks), and it passed.  I'm sure he was hearing about this issue, too, from every city.  The point is:  you gotta speak up, like Todd has!

The geniuses (said with huge sarcasm) at TAMC obviously forgot that Monterey County voters overwhelmingly voted for light rail over bus service for the branch, and they even touted it on their own website:

https://www.tamcmonterey.org/monterey-county-rail-extension-phase-3-castroville

Someone at TAMC is obviously getting something worthwhile from the bus interests to "forget" how to perform their job. Kudos to you Todd for bringing up the facts to them. No matter how much promising or lip flapping about it, once tracks come out, they never go back down. 

Dave 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/24 20:08 by kilroydiver.

> Someone at TAMC is obviously getting something
> worthwhile from the bus interests to "forget" how
> to perform their job. Kudos to you Todd for
> bringing up the facts to them. No matter how much
> promising or lip flapping about it, once tracks
> come out, they never go back down. 
>
They cannot do light rail at this point.  While TAMC voted long term they wanted light rail, they never notified the State and the original contract for a train from San Francisco to Seaside is still on the books.  The sad thing is when they bought the line it was serviceable.  Yes, it needed ties and the Salinas River Bridge needed work, but it was workable. They let the tracks and Salinas bridge go without maintenance and paved over the grade crossings. 

At the meeting it was comical to hear TAMCs director talk about how the tracks are completely unusable and all had to be replaced.  While much of it is 90 pound rail there is quite a bit of 119 pound welded rail that is like new.  Even the 90 pound would have been fine for a single train a day at 30 mph.  The line will never be high speed after upgrade anyway. It has steep grades over sand dunes with curves that don't lend to high speed. It isn't that far either so at best an upgrade to the line might save 10 minutes.

The sad thing is California has been flush with lots of transit money the past decade.  They could have gotten the money to get the branch fixed up instead of wasting it on the busway.  Now it is too late with California now broke.  



 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

---

The unusable thing is a common refrain when some interest wants to tank a project.  I recall getting a call from a city councilman in San Jose about the Willow Glen trestle on the old WP branch after I advocated for its reuse for a train.  He wanted a big expensive steel bridge and gave me a whole speech about how it was unstable, unusable and an environmental risk.  In fact the environmental risk would be from disturbing the bents and removing it, it was very stable and people were already using it.

Yeah, either someone down in Monterey has a hand in something or just a bias against rail.  They should run extentions of the Capitol or CalTrain down there and find a way to extend as far toward Monterey proper as possible.  It is doable with right planning and some $$$.  

Z

Like i say, find the graft.  In many cases, these locals are so ignorant of the law, that they will come out at a public meeting and say something like..." and my friend onws a bus company and he says he could run busses cheaply if we buy them for him"    Check out all past city council and/or TAMC meeting tapes.   Maybe you or your lawyers can find out if the TAMC is required to keep copies of meeting tapes for any period of time.  No doubt if they think they are in trouble, they may erase tapes or accidently lose them. 

They are obviously lying about the condition of the tracks.  Where there's smoke, there's fire.

And by the way.....there are many instances of OOS tracks coming back to life.   Just look at SMART, and you wouldnt even need that heavy a rebuild.

Is a handcar tourist operation considered 'a railroad' by the Surface Transportation Board?

rantoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is a handcar tourist operation considered 'a
> railroad' by the Surface Transportation Board?

No, STB is involved in common carrier rights and we are not a common carrier.  The FRA does not consider us a railroad either, but they have jurisdiction over us because the rail line has public crossings. The line is not owned by a railroad, but owned by a non-railroad, non-operating entity so our crossings are not required to be registered.  The PUC has regulation over the public crossing, but not the operation because we are not a railroad company. The FRA has regulations for vehicles that can be lifted off the tracks by "men" and we built them to be compliant.  Most railbike operations are out of compliance in this regard. Both agencies examined our activities and our operation was vetted by FRA senior attorneys as requested by TAMC.  I think the local agencies were looking for any reason to keep us off the line.

The odd thing is that while the busway is not permitted under the proposition 116 purchase contract, our private enterprise is as long as the lease money we pay is applied towards the Intercity rail project and we do not get in the way of the intercity rail project. Same goes for auto sales and agricultural leases along the line.  Our facility is all temporary with small buildings on steel bases that can be craned away.

One thing I want to convey is not all these politicians in Monterey County are bad, most of them are good people.  When we have talked to these elected officials we get the opinion that they just don't know and depend upon the staff reports being accurate and honest. I believe this situation is more of bureaucrats running the show and feeding the bus narrative to the elected officials, whether for philsophical reasons or just plain corruption.  These employees knows what is going on is illegal, but justify it by telling themselves this is just as well because the train cost is not feasible, or the population is best served by a bus, or the bus will bring low income housing to people that can't afford to live here.  

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

> One thing I want to convey is not all these
> politicians in Monterey County are bad, most of
> them are good people.  When we have talked to
> these elected officials we get the opinion that
> they just don't know and depend upon the staff
> reports being accurate and honest. I believe this
> situation is more of bureaucrats running the show
> and feeding the bus narrative to the elected
> officials, whether for philsophical reasons or
> just plain corruption.  These employees knows
> what is going on is illegal, but justify it by
> telling themselves this is just as well because
> the train cost is not feasible, or the population
> is best served by a bus, or the bus will bring low
> income housing to people that can't afford to live
> here.  


Interesting stuff. This is sort of similar to what I have experienced. The elected officials have a lot on their plate and have to rely on staff. The staff are in a chain of command at the top of which on the staff side are the various staff director level people who interface with the electeds. Ideally staff would be serving these permits and agreements and the code but it seems like in practice the electeds and directors--operating outside public hearings and not necessarily with authority or direction--can have a lot more influence on things than the permits, agreements, code and so on. For example that thing you mentioned about the staff raising concerns about the busway rail removal but it not being heeded. Not sure if I have that totally accurate but it comes to mind. 

Problem is when they start getting off the traveled path and driving around in someone's cornfield or lettuce or strawberry field as may be case down there. Also when these extracurricular or extralegal doings end up not serving the public interest. 

I think public opinion seems to make a big deal on these. The more the merrier and the more effective. I wish that the electeds would crack the whip without that but seems like "public outcry" or maybe litigation moves the needle. 



 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/24 14:45 by phthithu.

The response of government bureaucrats on this issue is not surprising.

Years ago Union Pacific was jumping thru regulatory hoops to make sure they had all of their ducks in a row bringing UP 844 to the Los Angeles basin for the LAUPT anniversary celebration. So at least one well-known UP manager appeared with the railroad's environmental experts before a committee of minions at the South Coast Air Quality Management District to plead their case. The railroad assured the bureaucrats that the engine's visit would be a one-time deal. One bureaucrat jumped in and said he was worried "...that permitting this one event would prompt Union Pacific to bring these engines into Los Angeles every day..." My UP friend had to bite his tongue.