A proposed busway from Marina to Sand City has momentum, but its fate rests in the Coastal Commission.

David Schmalz here. For all the things I’ve covered over the years at the Weekly, there’s no topic that’s been harder for me to get a read on than Monterey-Salinas Transit’s SURF! project, a proposed busway that would pave over much of the railway parallel to Highway 1 from Marina to Sand City, which would ostensibly facilitate a more efficient commute time for those taking public transit between Marina and Monterey, though there is disagreement about that. 

I grew up in the Bay Area, and lived there many years as an adult, and I loved taking BART to wherever it could take me—as a kid, my friends and I would go to Chinatown in San Francisco, to Oakland A’s games, whatever. Our parents trusted us, and let us live in the wild without their supervision and, as a result, we had all manner of adventures. 

So, point being, I love trains, and public transit—it was central to my youth, and my growth. 

That’s why I was intrigued by a June 3 letter to the Transportation Agency for Monterey County from the nonprofit Train Riders Association of California (TRAC), which countered the SURF! proposal with one that would introduce a rail line in Marina and Monterey. 

But, as I’ve recently confirmed in numerous discussions, that proposal has no traction at the moment—not a single meeting has been held about it—and while it purports the cost for the rail line would be about $78 million, Todd Muck, TAMC’s executive director, thinks it would be over $200 million. I don’t trust cost estimates anymore, though I feel compelled to report them—the cost of every project is on an upward trajectory, and delays make them add up. 

Muck also adds that, before his time at TAMC, there was an effort to bring rail back on the line between Marina and Monterey, but that because of political headwinds about bringing trains back along the now-paved-over rail at Window on the Bay, it was untenable. 

I could go on and on about the various bureaucratic peculiarities about the laws governing how the SURF! project will play out, but that being said, I have no good sense for how it will land.

Most immediately, it will come down to the California Coastal Commission, which, while a government agency enforcing the Coastal Act, is also a political body—the staff has expressed opposition to the project on account of its impacts on environmentally sensitive habitat, among other things, but ultimately, whether the agency approves it will come down to the commissioners. That vote is expected to come sometime this summer. 

But there’s a lot of momentum in support of the project, too, because at least for now, it’s fully funded with tens of millions of dollars, thanks in large part to state grants. 

Though I’m also picking up a lot of headwinds blowing against it—not a single Marina resident I’ve spoken to wants the project to move forward. 

I don’t know what’s going to happen with SURF! but I wish that, instead of a busway, we had a train. 

There used to be one, the Del Monte, that went from Pacific Grove to San Francisco, but it was discontinued in 1971. 

Shame about that. I wasn’t even born yet. I would love to bring that line back, but I ain’t holding my breath, except to try not to inhale the exhaust of the cars that people have chosen as the alternative.

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