Monterey Salinas Transit outlines downtown relocation options and corridor proposals for Salinas transit center

Monterey Salinas Transit (MST) told the Historic Resources Board that a Caltrans‑funded feasibility study has narrowed potential downtown locations for a relocated Salinas Transit Center to three sites and identified side‑running dedicated bus lanes as the public’s preferred corridor alternative.

"I'm Michelle Overmyer, director of planning and innovation at Monterey Salinas Transit," said Overmyer, summarizing the study and its schedule. MST said the study combines grant funds with local match from the City of Salinas, Taylor Farms and MST and will wrap its technical work and outreach by the fall, with final MST‑board action later this year or early next year.

The nut graf: MST presented data showing the existing downtown transit center is 0.75 acres with nine gates and serves about 3,400 people on an average weekday; the agency said an ideal replacement site would be roughly 1.1 acres with 12 gates to accommodate planned growth and operational needs.

In the presentation, MST explained the three candidate sites under study: the Intermodal Transportation Center (ITC), a publicly owned site of more than three acres that would require fewer route changes; a 1.15‑acre city parking lot across from the post office at 111 W. Alisal; and a privately owned 1.26‑acre parcel at 425 Main Street/127 John Street. MST noted trade‑offs among ownership (public vs. private), walkability for the 40% of users who walk to the center, required routing deviations, and state‑owned roadway constraints (Caltrans) for some options.

MST also presented corridor alternatives for the system’s busiest axis along Alisal/Williams. It described three approaches: side‑running dedicated bus lanes (where an outer travel lane becomes bus/emergency only), center‑running lanes (buses travel in a median lane), or improved in‑lane stop treatments so buses load in the travel lane without dedicated lanes. Overmyer said outreach and survey responses favored side‑running lanes for the three study segments.

Board members asked several operational and equity questions. One member queried whether the 3,400 figure was per weekday or per week; Overmyer confirmed it was per weekday and said MST’s spring data and a 300‑response survey informed demand assumptions. Another member pressed whether many riders transfer to Amtrak or Greyhound; MST said Amtrak service is limited now and commuter rail is planned for the future, which could increase intermodal demand.

On parking and access, Overmyer said most current users walk or are dropped off and that MST’s current hub lacks dedicated park‑and‑ride facilities. "I don't know that parking is gonna be all that important for Salinas," she said, adding that some ITC proposals include parking for Amtrak and future commuter rail use.

Several board members raised preservation and siting concerns about the privately owned John/Main location, noting that buildings there include architecturally significant features and mosaic panels. Staff and MST acknowledged that some candidate sites are on state‑designated roadways, which creates permitting challenges, and that any future design would need to address historic resources and Secretary of the Interior standards.

Overmyer stressed the planning status of the study: the consultant has submitted sketches, cost‑benefit analysis and an environmental risk assessment, and MST will post materials online and hold round‑2 outreach this month. She cautioned that construction would require additional property coordination and funding and could be a multi‑year process.

What’s next: MST will begin round‑2 public outreach in July and post project materials, including a survey, to its project webpage. Any relocation would depend on additional funding and interagency agreements; the board asked staff to ensure that historic‑resource reviews and community concerns are fully integrated into future design work.