SP 3004 with the Del Monte at Marina, April 1971

Salinas River railroad bridge, March 2020

The Monterey Branch Line is a

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

located in

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Monter ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. It runs between Castroville, where it connects to the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

Coast Line, and

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

, formerly running as far as Pacific Grove. It is roughly paralleled by California State Route 1 and is active to Sand City .

History

Originally built by the Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad, the line was the first

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller struc ...

railroad to operate in California with 3-foot gauge tracks laid between Salinas and Monterey. The line saw financial issues very soon after opening and was purchased by a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific on September 29, 1879. A new branch north to Castroville was constructed by the new owners and the western portion converted to standard gauge with the

Hotel Del Monte The Hotel Del Monte was a large resort hotel in Monterey, California, from its opening in 1880 until 1942. It was one of the finest luxury hotels in North America. During World War II, it closed and the building was leased to the United State ...

opening the following year. This allowed direct passenger leisure services to run from San Francisco. The line came under the auspices of Southern Pacific proper in 1888 and was extended west past Pacific Grove to a facility at Lake Mejella. By the 1950s, sand made the bulk of freight moved along the route.

Passenger rail Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

service ended with the cancellation of the '' Del Monte'' after April 30, 1971, when

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

took over passenger rail services in the United States. Tracks were realigned with the construction of

State Route 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

, but the rails west of Seaside were abandoned in 1979. The tracks in Pacific Grove and Monterey were removed in the 1980s and the former right-of-way is now the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail. The Salinas River bridge was damaged in the

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of ...

— reconstruction time as well as the closure of

Fort Ord Fort Ord is a former United States Army post on Monterey Bay of the Pacific Ocean coast in California, which closed in 1994 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action. Most of the fort's land now makes up the Fort Ord National Monument, m ...

in 1993 left almost no activity on the line, and it was abandoned soon after that. The full line was purchased by the Transportation Authority for Monterey County (TAMC) in 2003 for $9.3 million ($ in adjusted for inflation).

Planned restoration

Restoration of ''Del Monte''-like service to Monterey had been identified as early as the

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacra ...

1984–89 Rail passenger development plan. Amtrak declined to operate such service, but operations under Southern Pacific (by then running state-subsidized services) were studied with ridership forecast developed. The TAMC opted to initiate

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as f ...

service to

Salinas station Salinas station, also known as the Salinas Intermodal Transportation Center, is an intermodal transit center in downtown Salinas, California, United States. As a transit hub, the facility is a passenger rail station and bus station. Services T ...

in 2021. TAMC has put forward plans to rebuild the line and commence a rail service between Monterey and Castroville. The project calls for diesel light rail trains to operate at twelve stations from Custom House Plaza in Monterey and the future Castroville Caltrain station. The route was included in the 2018 California State Rail Plan as eligible for further study in 2022 and integration into the state rail network by 2040. , Monterey–Salinas Transit plans to construct a busway on the former Monterey Branch Line between Marina and Sand City.

References

{{reflist Transportation in Monterey County, California Rail lines in California Proposed railway lines in California Rail trails in California Southern Pacific Railroad