The top driver of this project is agriculture.  Second is tourism to the Cannery Row, Laguna Seca Raceway, and the Acquarium.  The current system is the Coast Starlight stopping in Salinas plus busses.  The Amtrak Coast Daylight, one trip a day from Los Angeles to downtown San Francisco with estimated ridership of 216,000 riders a year, is expected to start in 2012.  Added stations to the Coast Starlight are Pajaro, Salinas, Soledad, King City and others.

Extends existing San Francisco – San Jose - Gilroy commuter rail service 37 miles to Pajaro, Castroville & Salinas:
    - 2 round trips per weekday initially
    - 4 round trips per weekday in 10 years
    - Projected annual ridership (2010): 530,000  (2,000 daily passengers)

The Monterey Peninsula Fixed Guideway Service will provide light rail transit service using the existing Monterey Branch Line alignment, which was purchased by the Transportation Agency in 2003 for $9.3 million. The 16 mile corridor extends between Monterey and Castroville on the publicly owned tracks adjacent to Highway 1. The first phase of the project will run between Monterey and north Marina with key stations in Monterey, Seaside, Sand City, Marina/CSUMB, and connecting bus service to Pacific Grove and Carmel to the south and Salinas to the east. Later phases will extend service to the planned commuter rail station in Castroville and increase the frequency of trains.

You can download flyers about each rail project at:  http://www.tamcmonterey.org/programs/rail/project_flyers.html

Their full website is:   TAMC website:  http://www.tamcmonterey.org/