TAMC to buy land for rail line

California's Transportation Agency for Monterey County approved its first land purchase of about three acres near the Salinas train station for its planned $110 million project for commuter rail service between Salinas and the San Francisco Bay Area. Monterey County Herald reports that the agency will use state rail transportation money to acquire the property at 20 New St. from Powers RV. The parcel will be used for part of the overnight layover area for commuter trains. Agency directors approved the real estate acquisition at their Wednesday meeting in Salinas. The project, which TAMC estimates will begin service in 2014, is in the final stages of environmental review with preliminary design work being done. The agency is poised to move into land-acquisition efforts, Hale said. The commuter line will have stations in Salinas, Castroville and Pajaro for service to Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The agency has been planning the project for several years. The Salinas parcel was acquired early in the process because the owners were planning to sell the land and asked the agency to go ahead with the purchase. Negotiations started in 2009. The $1.93 million price includes $219,000 for cleanup of hazardous arsenic and petrochemical hydrocarbons on the site.