Our mission...
leading, advocating,
and delivering
quality public transportation.

 BACKGROUND

Monterey-Salinas Transit District was created by state law AB644 and formed July 1, 2010 succeeding the MST Joint Powers Agency formed in 1981 when the City of Salinas joined the Monterey Peninsula Transit Joint Powers Agency.

Current members of the joint powers agency are the Cities of Carmel, Del Rey Oaks, Greenfield, Gonzales, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Salinas, Sand City, Seaside, Soledad and the County of Monterey. A Board of Directors with a representative from each member jurisdiction governs the agency and appoints the General Manager.

 SERVICE AREA

Monterey-Salinas Transit serves a 280 square-mile area of Monterey County and Southern Santa Cruz County. MST's 37 routes serve an estimated 352,000 population based upon the area within 3/4 mile of established routes within the county.

 ROUTE STRUCTURE

MST’s 50 routes provide service primarily in the Monterey Peninsula jurisdictions and in the Salinas Valley. Intercity service is provided via Highway 68 and Highway 1 between these two urban areas of Monterey County. In addition, intercity routes connect MST with the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District at their Transit Center in Watsonville. Further, MST provides rural transit service to Carmel Valley and seasonal service to Big Sur, and along the Monterey waterfront (The MST Trolley). Routes on the Monterey Peninsula have been reviewed and modified according to the recommendations in the Penninsula Area Service Study.

 MAJOR STUDIES

Marina Area Service Study (11/5/09)

Penninsula Area Service Study (PASS) (9/17/06)  

Short Range Transit Plan (4/11/06)

2006 MST ADA Complementary Paratransit (RIDES) Plan (06/14/06)

Designing For Transit Manual - (pdf-15MB)

 MAJOR PROJECTS

Frank J. Lichtanski Monterey Bay Operations Center - click here to view digital rendering
MST currently operates out of two major facilities. Built in 1978, the Thomas D. Albert Monterey facility has outgrown its original design capacity by nearly 40%. In Salinas, the Clarence J. Wright facility was constructed in 1986 with parking for 23 buses. Today, there are a total of 35 buses stored, inspected and serviced at this location, exceeding design capacity by over 50%.

At these overcrowded facilities, the risk of in-yard collisions increases due to the congestion. In addition, the limited number of maintenance bays often forces staff to work on buses outside on portable lifts, vulnerable to inclement weather and the elements. Just last year, cracks were detected in key support beams spanning the maintenance bays at the Salinas Facility. In Monterey, recent rains caused roof damage and severe leaks into administrative offices. And, current maintenance bays are not long enough to service 60-foot articulated buses that could address overcrowded conditions along MST’s key high-congestion corridors. Clearly, MST has out-grown its facilities.

As currently envisioned, the new Frank J. Lichtanski (FJL) facility will include:
• 90,945-square-foot, two-story maintenance building with service bays for buses; automotive service; engine rebuild, maintenance, brake and body shops;
• Approximately 36,000 square-foot, three-story, operations building for administrative personnel and for dispatching drivers, including storage, offices, drivers’ lounge, restroom areas, covered patio, and a Board meeting room.
• 18,620-square-foot fuel/brake/tire repair building including fueling equipment to dispense diesel and gasoline fuels, underground storage tanks, revenue extraction equipment, and bus interior cleaners.
• 8,373-square-foot bus wash/brake/dyno building with two bus washers, water reclamation equipment, reverse osmosis final rinse water system, two bus air dryers, brake dyno facility, water-softening system, and equipment room.

MST is working with the County of Monterey to develop a 24.3-acre site on the former Fort Ord into the FJL Operations and Maintenance facility. This site is ideally located adjacent to the future east-west multi-modal corridor connecting coastal Monterey County and the Monterey Peninsula with Salinas. In order to expedite project development and planning and save design costs, MST is utilizing existing plans from the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Santa Ana Bus Maintenance and Operations Facilities to construct its new FJL facility. MST has also partnered with San Joaquin (Stockton, CA) Regional Transit District in an attempt to jointly utilize this innovative approach to facility development. It is anticipated that these strategies will save time and money throughout the design process.

Hybrid Bus Demonstration Project  
In advance of several major bus replacement capital investments scheduled for the near future, MST seeks the opportunity to test new hybrid engine technology through a two-vehicle demonstration project. Giving MST maintenance staff and coach operators the ability to evaluate the new technology on a limited basis would provide for assessment and evaluation of hybrid engines with regards to the particular geography and terrain of our service area. As various engine technologies will be considered during MST’s future bus purchases, having “real-word” experience with hybrid engines would enable the Board of Directors to make a more informed choice as it selects the bus-type and vendors for upcoming fleet replacements.

Monterey-Salinas Transit Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)  
MST is working to implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and technologies along several corridors throughout the county. BRT combines the high-quality service of rail transit with the lower-cost and greater-flexibility of buses. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has granted MST’s request to initiate Project Development for the first BRT corridor in Monterey County and has provided $2.77 million in funding. click here for more information

Safety and Security  
During 2007, an increase in crime was noted in parts of the MST service area. At the same time, homeland security remains a high-profile concern among transit agencies across the nation. In this atmosphere of rising crime and potential vulnerability, MST has taken significant steps to insure the safety and security of its passengers, vehicles and facilities. MST buses are being outfitted with up to eight cameras each, while the Salinas Transit Center and the new Marina Transit Exchange both have surveillance equipment that are linked via T-1 line to MST’s Monterey communication center and other administrative offices. This enables staff to monitor conditions and activities in “real-time” at MST facilities. MST is successfully working with local law enforcement agencies to investigate, apprehend and ultimately convict individuals accused of violent crimes. This video equipment is also seen as an effective deterrent to illegal gang activities.

In 2002 MST began on an agency-wide implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems technologies that included the TransitMaster radio communications and automatic vehicle locator (AVL) package. Key components of the TransitMaster system allow staff in the MST communications center to monitor the location of all buses via Global Positioning System (GPS). When in danger, bus drivers can activate TransitMaster’s overt and covert alarms, signaling the need for police, fire and/or ambulance. When these alarms are activated, microphones on the bus are activated so that staff in the communication center can monitor activity during emergency incidents. And, since the bus’s position is pinpointed via GPS, communication center staff can instruct first responders to the exact location of the vehicle, saving valuable minutes during an emergency.MST was recently informed by the manufacturer of the TransitMaster system that an upgrade to the equipment was required in order to keep the technology current and operating with a full range of utility. This upgrade to technology that is nearing ten years of age is estimated to cost approximately $1 million. To protect the safety and security of MST’s customers, MST is seeking federal assistance to help fund the upgrade project.

2009 Annual Report (1/14/10)

FY 2009 Annual Financial Report (12/30/09)

FY 2008 Annual Financial Report (2/19/09)

FY 2007 Annual Financial Report (2/07/07)

FY 2006 Annual Financial Report (1/03/07)

FY 2005 Annual Financial Report (1/04/06)

• 97.6% of passengers believe public transit service is “good for the community.”
• 95% of riders state that MST services are valuable when considering both distance and cost.
• 76.8% of passengers believe that MST services have improved over the last year.
• Work is the primary purpose of all MST trips at 40%. The next most popular destination is school at 15%, followed by shopping at 14%.
• Exceeding the state’s requirement, MST has reduced fleet emissions by 98.5% since 2002.
• U.S. greenhouse gases (GHGs) from transportation represent 33% of total U.S. GHG emissions.
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) represents over 95% of total greenhouse gas emissions from mobile transportation.
• Public transportation’s national reduction of 6.9 million metric tons of CO2 annually exceeds the transportation CO2 emissions that exist in states such as North Dakota (6.3 million metric tons) and Delaware (5.0 million metric tons).
• A solo commuter switching his or her commute to existing public transportation on a single day every week can reduce CO2 emissions by 20 pounds or more than 4,800 pounds in a year, about ten percent of a two-car family household’s carbon footprint of 22 metric tons per year.
• Reducing the daily use of one low occupancy vehicle and using public transit can reduce a two-car household’s carbon footprint between 25-30%. A two-car household switching all travel to transit can reduce their carbon footprint by up to 50%.
• Most transit trips are taken by people who regularly use public transportation. Nearly two-thirds of trips are taken by riders who take transit five or more days a week.
• More than one-third of all transit riders have household incomes of $50,000 or more (34.3%). Almost 10% of transit riders have household incomes of $100,000 or more. Almost half of respondents said they have household incomes ranging from $15,000 to $49,999 (45.6%).

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