It may be arriving later than hoped, but expanded rail service to the Bay Area is getting closer.

The dream of expanded rail service between Monterey and the Bay Area is real, and while it’s within sight, it’s not yet within reach.

On Sept. 24, the board of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County approved amending an agreement with the City of Salinas and Monterey-Salinas Transit for a rail extension to Monterey County. The agreement dates back to 2017, and was set to expire at the end of this year – the amendment extends the expiration date to Dec. 31, 2030, another five years.

There are two construction projects currently in design, one for a layover facility in Salinas, and the other to add a link to the Union Pacific tracks south of the Gilroy Station, which would allow trains to move both directions, instead of just alternating from one to the other depending on the time of day.

Right now, TAMC Executive Director Todd Muck says his agency is still working with Union Pacific on the designs for both, which TAMC will ultimately construct. Muck calls the process “iterative,” and says the plans are being sent back and forth, receiving further tweaking and refinement. “If they continue to participate like they have, we can get through that by next year,” Muck says.

Concurrently, he adds, TAMC is working with the State Division of Rail and Caltrain so that when the missing link comes, there will be rail service ready to take advantage of it. Those discussions are still in their early stages, he says, but the hope is for two round trips a day to San Jose, and looping in Amtrak’s Capital Corridor train on top of the existing, once-per-day Coast Starlight.

“If it all worked well,” Muck says, “it will be as early as 2028 for that to start.”

Cost estimates being what they are in a world of dynamic markets, Muck says the latest budget estimate for both the Salinas and Gilroy projects is $46.8 million, the majority from state funds.

Also on Sept. 24 when the TAMC board met, they heard an entirely unrelated rail update, one that tied up a loose end. When TAMC bought the Monterey Branch line tracks from Union Pacific in 2003 using $9.2 million in Prop. 116 funds – intended to be used for rail – there was never any follow-up from the state, and it just sat there.

But when MST proposed its SURF! busway project, which is currently being constructed over the tracks from Marina to Sand City, opponents brought it to the attention of the California Transportation Commission, which then forced TAMC to reappraise the current value of the tracks – $16.7 million as of late 2024 – and apply it toward a Prop. 116-eligible project.

TAMC and CTC have identified the project: the Pajaro/Watsonville Multimodal Station, which the board agreed to.

That means the Southern Branch Line is no longer subject to Prop. 116 requirements – TAMC is free to do with it what it wants. Still, Muck maintains, “It doesn’t change the reason we bought it, to preserve it for future rail.”