A project to move one bus line off of Highway 1 and, potentially, reduce commute times and greenhouse gas emissions, is inching closer to final approval. But opponents of Monterey-Salinas Transit’s SURF! Busway continue to argue its benefits don’t outweigh the impact of paving over train tracks and it isn’t the best use of $92 million of public money.
Monterey County Weekly staff writer David Schmalz recently rode the Line 20 bus, which would move onto the busway for five miles of the trip from Salinas to Monterey. He wrote a cover story about the route, the project, and the long, winding public policy path that led to a year-end scramble to get permits in place and federal funds secured before the change of administration in Washington.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Amy Mayer, KAZU: I like how you started out the story by riding the bus. Is this a bus that is actively being used by a lot of commuters now who are saying they want a faster ride?
David Schmalz, Monterey County Weekly: It wasn't clear to me that that was the case. There was about a dozen other people on the bus when we boarded Highway 1 in Marina heading south. And this was during rush hour. The amount of time it would save a commuter just going off highway for that five mile stretch…[it’s] not really that clear to me that it's really going to be much of a timesaver.
AM: If it's not likely to be too much of a timesaver for everyday commuters, could we talk about what other motivations there are? For example, is one of the reasons proponents want this built because there is an expectation it would, in the future, reduce emissions by having one bus [replace] even just a handful of cars?
DS: That is definitely part of it. Selling a project as reducing emissions is definitely a good way to increase the likelihood of getting awarded grant money. And also in this case, there was a social equity argument that was being made that really felt like more of a fig leaf to me than like a real argument. And what I mean by that is, when the [California] Coastal Commission approved this in September, this project... it violates the Coastal Act in numerous ways. But the way that they were able to justify approving it was that they said, well, our secondary goals, aside from enforcing the Coastal Act, are mitigating climate change and increasing social equity for disadvantaged communities to have access to the coast.
AM: This is a project that has evolved. There's been like 20 years since the county or the public gained [ownership of] the tracks. What was the public policy [process] that had so many zigs and zags that finally got to where we are with the Coastal Commission approving a project that they had rejected several times?
DS: TAMC [Transportation Agency for Monterey County] tried and failed to establish some sort of light rail on the tracks. There was never the money there, and probably not the demand there, for anything to pencil out. And then MST [Monterey-Salinas Transit] stepped in and said, ‘Hey, we can utilize this easement that you got from the state and put [in] a busway.’ And, then when the Coastal Commission first was approached by MST about this project in 2019, [they said] ‘Look, you shouldn't do this project where you're proposing to do it. You should not be putting this through dune habitat.’
AM: Because the original proposal was parallel to the train tracks rather than on the train tracks?
DS: At some points it was east of the train tracks, at some points west, and it crossed over in a few places. I've never seen the Coastal Commission do an about-face in this way. In their staff report that came out in late July for the August meeting, they said unequivocally, there's no way we can approve this project. And [State Sen.] John Laird [D-Santa Cruz], who arguably is one of the most powerful politicians in California […] has a lot of sway with the Coastal Commission. And I think that when he called that meeting with Coastal Commission staff, with MST and TAMC, and said, ‘we've got to figure out a solution here,’ the Coastal Commission just tried to figure out a way that they could approve it. And so their decision was to pave over the tracks to reduce the impact on habitat and also justify it by saying that it was going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also advance social equity. And that’s just how it went. [...]
They've got $92 million of grant money [including] like $35 million from the FTA [Federal Transit Administration]. I think that's all but guaranteed to come through at this point and it's going to get sequestered into some sort of account, so far as I'm told, before [President-elect Donald] Trump even takes office. [...]
There's so much you can do with $92 million and this just seems like not the best use of it, in my opinion. But, you know, as I conclude in the story, ultimately maybe it will prove to be a good thing. But I certainly don't see the evidence of it now.
You can read David Schmalz's cover story, "Wave Energy: Monterey-Salinas Transit’s SURF! project is hurtling ahead at great expense. Is it worth it?" here.
