Monterey‑Salinas Transit outlines $100–150M operations facility, transit center options and Alisal BRT study

Carl Sidoric, chief executive of Monterey‑Salinas Transit, told conference attendees that the district is advancing several Salinas‑area projects intended to improve service reliability and prepare for fleet electrification.

"We are looking at a new operations and maintenance facility... that is about a 100 to $150,000,000 project when all is said and done," Sidoric said. He said MST has recently acquired a property for the facility and is pursuing final design and funding to accommodate a growing, partially electrified fleet and mandated conversions to zero‑emission buses by 2040.

Sidoric said MST has narrowed potential sites for a relocated Salinas Transit Center from five to three, including a lot across from the post office and a vacant commercial parcel on Main Street; he estimated the transit‑center construction cost could range from $30 million to $60 million depending on siting and associated development opportunities.

He also outlined a study underway for an Alisal–Williams Road bus rapid transit corridor to improve travel time on the corridor that carries a significant share of MST trips; the study includes elements such as signal coordination, queue‑jump lanes and potential bus‑only lanes. That project is currently in feasibility stages and costs were discussed in the $20–50M range.

Sidoric and panelists emphasized delivery bottlenecks: permitting, pay‑for‑construction funding and long lead times in environmental work. "It takes 4 to 5 times the length of time to get to construction than the actual construction takes," he said, recommending earlier design‑to‑delivery collaboration to compress timelines and reduce inflationary cost pressure.

MST asked the community and local leaders to help advocate for state and federal funds and to engage around site selection as the agency pursues funding packages and final design work.