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Re: Restoring Passenger Rail Service To Monterey
Author: Eddie Elkins
Date: 08-09-2013 - 21:07
mook Wrote:
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> 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.
The SanJac project certainly has had its share of critics, including, of course, those who think it's an unwise expenditure of taxpayer dollars. There's a certain mindset by a group of people that money shouldn't be advanced toward ANY non-highway project until the last pothole is patched and the last freeway is widened.
NIMBYs near UC Riverside have been having things held up in the courts for about a decade.
> 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?
I passed through Castroville about a month ago and noticed that the grade crossing at Highway 183 (Salinas Road) has been paved over. So I'd say the line is not receiving any freight business.
In looking at a GOOGLE map, I see where the California Bus Association is located in Castroville.
Maybe that explains EVERYTHING! It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!
-------------------------------------------------------
> 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.
The SanJac project certainly has had its share of critics, including, of course, those who think it's an unwise expenditure of taxpayer dollars. There's a certain mindset by a group of people that money shouldn't be advanced toward ANY non-highway project until the last pothole is patched and the last freeway is widened.
NIMBYs near UC Riverside have been having things held up in the courts for about a decade.
> 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?
I passed through Castroville about a month ago and noticed that the grade crossing at Highway 183 (Salinas Road) has been paved over. So I'd say the line is not receiving any freight business.
In looking at a GOOGLE map, I see where the California Bus Association is located in Castroville.
Maybe that explains EVERYTHING! It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!
