 |
Re: Restoring PAssenger Rail Service To Monterey
Author: mook
Date: 08-09-2013 - 20:53
Let's give Eddie his due. Fixing up the Monterey Branch is POSSIBLE. It may not be PRACTICAL. SanJac on the other hand is both POSSIBLE AND PRACTICAL because it has traffic potential and a sponsor with money.
Even government transit agencies have to demonstrate decent traffic potential because they have to get 25% or so of operating cost out of the farebox, minimum, to get Fed & State $$ for the rest. SanJac supposedly can do that; Monterey unproven but (I used to live in Santa Cruz working N. Monterey County and still have family there - familiar with the area and the politics) given the NIMBYs and the cost of That Bridge (which SanJac doesn't have) and the practical impossibility of going beyond the parking lot in Seaside I don't see active rail happening there for a long time. I won't say Never - as the kid in Angels in the Outfield said, It Could Happen - but there are far better candidates for branchline resurrection in my remaining lifetime than the Monterey Branch.
Off the subject - recent Googling of satellite photos seems to show a couple of covered hopper cars parked on a spur at the old sand plant north of Marina. 1) is that for real (they've got to be rusted solid to the rail by now if so); and 2) is the plant still operating with trucks?
Even government transit agencies have to demonstrate decent traffic potential because they have to get 25% or so of operating cost out of the farebox, minimum, to get Fed & State $$ for the rest. SanJac supposedly can do that; Monterey unproven but (I used to live in Santa Cruz working N. Monterey County and still have family there - familiar with the area and the politics) given the NIMBYs and the cost of That Bridge (which SanJac doesn't have) and the practical impossibility of going beyond the parking lot in Seaside I don't see active rail happening there for a long time. I won't say Never - as the kid in Angels in the Outfield said, It Could Happen - but there are far better candidates for branchline resurrection in my remaining lifetime than the Monterey Branch.
Off the subject - recent Googling of satellite photos seems to show a couple of covered hopper cars parked on a spur at the old sand plant north of Marina. 1) is that for real (they've got to be rusted solid to the rail by now if so); and 2) is the plant still operating with trucks?
