Tom Nunes Jr., president of The Nunes Company, remembers when Salinas Valley lettuce was packed into refrigerated railcars and shipped across the country by train. “They’d come right into our coolers, right into our packing sheds, and then we would hand load those railroad cars,” Nunes recalls. Back in the mid-’70s, he says, about 80 percent of his company’s crop hit the rails instead of the highways.

The train tracks that run along West Market and Abbott streets in Salinas had spurs leading to cities including New York, Chicago and Portland. Southern Pacific even had a dedicated produce line called the “Salad Bowl Express.” Over time, however, the efficiency and speed of trucks beat out boxcars. Now faced with record-high diesel prices, Monterey County growers are considering whether to bring railroad back into the shipping equation.

Last month the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California received $30,000 from Monterey County and Salinas to study the viability of returning to the rails. Ag officials say the prospect is worth looking into, but there likely isn’t adequate infrastructure in Salinas and elsewhere to reintroduce rail carriers on a large scale.

John Baillie, president of Baillie Family Farms and Tri-County Packing, says the hardest part would be getting his customers on board with rail delivery. In addition to new rail facilities in the Salinas Valley, Baillie says, distribution centers would have to built at East Coast destinations. “Sure, we would love to ship by rail,” Baillie says. “Too bad we don’t have anyone to ship it to. All that infrastructure would have to be built, and that’s a lot of money.”

The feasibility study will look at what infrastructure would be needed to accommodate the ag industry, how much it would cost and who would pay for it. Grower-Shipper Association members have already met with representatives from Union Pacific Railroad and visited a new rail facility being built in Delano by Railex.

Zoe Richmond, spokeswoman for Union Pacific, says there is potential to add produce-carrying cars, which would reach New York in five to seven days. While the train may take a day or two longer than trucks, Richmond notes the environmental benefits. “We can ship one ton of freight 780 miles on one gallon of diesel,” Richmond says. “That’s just a huge advantage over trucks. One train can take up to 300 trucks off the road. Not only are you getting fuel efficiency… you don’t have all the trucks on the road that are impacting traffic.”

Taking trucks off the highways appeals to local growers and shippers, who have seen staggering diesel prices cut into their bottom line. Nationwide, diesel costs an average of $4.50 a gallon compared to a little under $3 per gallon a year ago, according to AAA. It costs as much as $9,000 to ship a truck of lettuce to New York, whereas transportation went for roughly $2,000 less last year, ag officials say.

“By the time it gets to the East Coast, it’s a damn expensive salad,” says Jim Manassero of D’Arrigo Bros.

About 2,700 trucks per day leave the Salinas Valley during peak growing season, adding up to an estimated 200,000 trucks each year, according to the Transportation Agency for Monterey County.

Like many Salinas-area ag companies, D’Arrigo ships a portion of its veggies on piggyback vans that are loaded on the flat cars of trains. “The piggybacks give you an alternative,” Manassero says. “They are kind of better than on-the-road trucks” because the piggybacks cost less, he explains. But they also take longer to reach their destination.

One refrigerated rail car, on the other hand, can transport about two-and-a-half truckloads of produce, Nunes says. When the Railex distribution facility is completed in September, The Nunes Company will start shipping some celery and broccoli from Delano. “You wouldn’t be shipping leafy greens on there or strawberries because they are far more perishable,” Nunes says. “The celery and broccoli crops are more durable.”

Nunes says the move won’t save his company a ton of money. “But it does take trucks off the road and it does use less fuel,” he says.

Shipping by rail, however, creates logistical challenges. Steve Church, sales manager for Church Brothers, says terminal markets where rail shipments arrive at a central hub have for the most part been abandoned in favor of direct delivery to chain stores and supermarkets. Customers also demand timely delivery, something that rail cars haven’t always been able to meet in the past.

Manassero recalls when D’Arrigo lost track of a rail car full of broccoli for 17 days in Bakersfield. “They had to use gas masks to get the dang stuff unloaded,” he jokes.

Nunes is currently shipping some celery from Railex’s Washington state facility to Rotterdam, N.Y. But the arrangement is far from ideal. The celery is driven up north, loaded onto rail cars and then loaded back on to a truck to be delivered to customers, Nunes says. “The more times you touch the product, the more chances you have of creating some deficiencies, some deterioration in the product,” he says.

A Salinas-based distribution center would be superior, Nunes adds. “If we were able to ship from here directly to these markets, it would cut the handling down.”

Ag officials say using more rail would create competition and could bring truck prices down. “We are kind of at the mercy of the trucks right now,” Church says.

The feasibility study, which is being conducted by agricultural consultant Steve Collins, is expected to be completed by the end of September, says Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association. The association will next convene a meeting of industry leaders and get their input, Bogart says.

While rail’s future holds promise, Nunes doesn’t foresee a return to the days of the “Salad Bowl Express” anytime soon. “I don’t think we’ll ever see rail like it was back in the ’60s or ’70s,” he says, “but I think rail has a place in transportation and our business.”