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With little fanfare, Monterey-Salinas Transit has begun three daily round trips between the Monterey Peninsula and the San Jose Amtrak/Caltrain station. Additional stops of route 55 include the Prunedale park & ride lot, Gilroy Caltrain station and the Morgan Hill Caltrain station. The schedule is designed to connect to Capitol Corridor and Caltrain trains in San Jose. Downside: Travel time is almost two hours from Monterey vs one hour by car. You'd think they could do it in 90 minutes with only 5 stops. Timetables are available at both websites.
dilly Member # 1427
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Sounds like a useful route, but two hours does seem excessive. My guess is that the bus sits for 5-10 minutes at each stop -- which will probably make it unappealing to the commuters that the service is obviously meant to attract.
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DeeCT Member # 3241
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Mr Toy -
Perhaps no saving of time -- but is there a cost saving? Are the fares less than the cost of gasoline, wear and tear, parking fees etc?
Back when I made a daily commute, I would have counted as a benefit just being able to read the paper and leave the driving to someone else if the cost was even pretty much equal.
Dee
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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Its $8.00 for the full Monterey to San Jose trip, one way evidently. $6.00 for shorter trips on the same bus. Its about a 60 mile trip. At $3.00 per gallon, and 32 MPG highway for our Impala, it costs more than gas.
George Harris Member # 2077
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Mr. Toy, I have in the past, but not recently visited your site and its information, or was it links, on restoration of direct train service to Monterey. Aside from dealing with what some of us elsewhere see as the usual California (Marina in this case) wackiness, getting trains back in is relatively easy and cheap to the point that it is embarassing that it has not been done.
George
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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George, I've done some updating of my website recently. Marina has softened its position somewhat, but is more interested in local light rail service than intercity. The mayor recently said she soesn't want to see any type of rail vehicle in Marina that could operate on the UP main lines. That doesn't make any sense because TAMC is considering DMUs for both local and intercity service.
There was a local sales tax increase on the ballot last March which would have provided some funding for rail, but it was defeated. So Monterey service is on the back burner.
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