San Francisco is considering big changes in how Caltrain and High Speed Rail will serve the City.  Also, in the next days, Caltrain is releasing new data that provides a window into the slow phasing out of at-grade crossings on the Peninsula corridor.

Go to the Friends of Caltrain for the most current actions to save Caltrain.

From the last Caltrain and Samtrans board meetings, some slow progress on wifi and airport connections, but no solutions yet.

At the last Caltrain board meeting, the director’s report included an update on Caltrain’s efforts to add wifi to the trains.  Caltrain has hired a marketing consultant, Singer and Associates, to solicit a corporate sponsor for the service.  Singer is investigating seven potential partners. Caltrain is looking to example of the MBTA in the Boston, which has implemented wifi on its commuter trains since 2010, and is currently seeking corporate sponsorship to upgrade the service.

The good news is that the capital equipment to run wifi is included in the proposed Capital Equipment budget for 2014. The bad news is that wifi will be cut if Caltrain does not get full $4.8 million per partner agency that it is requesting.

At the $3.6 million level, Caltrain would also reduce its train car maintenance by $500,000, at a time when the aging cars are breaking down, causing reliability problems.

Wifi to be deferred if Caltrain gets less capital funding from partners

On the SFO connection topic, the bad news is that SamTrans has made the decision to truncate the KX service at Redwood City, getting rid of a low-cost, reasonably time-efficient, and little-known service to the airport for riders in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The KX has low ridership, and SamTrans was not convinced by the encouragement of the services’ true fans that they should try to market the hidden gem of a service before deciding to kill it for riders south of Redwood City.

On the bright side, SamTrans has lifted a longstanding luggage ban on the KX from San Francisco.   Luggage has been banned on the KX  since the 70s, following a lawsuit from an airport shuttle company that opposed public sector competition. The shuttle company hasn’t served the airport since 2006, and SamTrans finally lifted the ban as a result of customer complaints.

More good news is that new SamTrans senior planner Douglas Kim told Green Caltrain that he has heard customer feedback loud and clear, and strongly agrees that transit to the airport is woefully inadequate, and SamTrans is looking for new connection solutions.   SamTrans staff is focused in the near term on implementing the service overhaul approved by the board, and then will look again at how to improve the airport connection.    We’ll give them a few months, and ask again.

One possible option might be a new bus route from San Bruno to the airport, added so close to the SamTrans Service Plan approval deadline that SamTrans didn’t have proposed timing for it yet.  The route would start at San Bruno BART; the new Caltrain station will be less than a mile away. Depending on timing, that could be helpful for airport travellers.  According to Google Maps, the airport is 3 miles and less than 10 minutes by car, so a one-hop bus ride could work.

Another possible option would be a Millbrae   shuttle, which would need funding.  How much extra would you be willing to pay for a Millbrae shuttle?  For this blogger, transit to the airport is competing with SuperShuttle at about $20.  So the current $9 Caltrain-BART-BART dance is cheaper than the alternative. A $4 shuttle add-on, which would be the same price as the BART dance and less schedule hassle, would feel like a good deal to me.   What do you think?

Caltrain riders are the least satisfied with the Clipper card, according to a new customer satisfaction study for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.  A December 2012 phone survey of 800 registered users showed that Clipper customers overall are more satisfied than the previous year, with 88% reporting that they are satisfied with the service, and 62% reporting that they are very satisfied.  However, Caltrain riders were the least positive of the 4 major agencies, with 71% satisfied, among whom 47% were very satisfied.  Among Caltrain riders, 19% were neutral, and 11% were dissatisfied, according to a slice of the survey by agency requested by Green Caltrain.

                 Clipper Customer Satisfaction Survey Results

Survey conducted for MTC, December, 2012

What do you think, Caltrain riders? What’s working for you with Clipper, and what’s not working?

One area for improvement that emerges from the survey data is transfers.  Among all Clipper customers, 56% use more than one transit agency at least occasionally, indicating that there is a large customer base for transfers.  An MTC staffer looked at the data and told Green Caltrain that approximately 23% of respondents transfer between agencies during a typical trip, and the remainder transfer more occasionally.

One of the potential benefits of using a common smart card is integrated transfers, but when Clipper was set up originally, the participating agencies were unable to agree on a shared system.

Bay Area transfer options have declined in the last year with the demise of the BART plus program, a non-Clipper service that provided free bus transfers to BART. That service was largely used by customers for repeated free bus rides, so it didn’t serve the intended purpose.

Muni leader Ed Reiskin has also recently called for better transfer integration.  Now that Clipper is well established as a payment tool, is it time to revisit the promise of better integration across services?

On Bike to Work Day, Nathan Dushman of the SF2G bike commute club led a group of riders from the Millbrae Caltrain and BART station to Oracle’s breakfast spread along the Bay Trail, helping some new riders get practice taking their bikes on the train.

photo credit: Andrew Boone

The new riders have a lot of company: the number of Caltrain riders who use a bicycle for their first and last miles is growing at an even faster clip than Caltrain’s rapidly growing overall ridership.   The most dramatic spikes are in Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose Diridon stations, which have seen increases of 23 to 24 percent.     The growth in bike ridership is in line with dramatic growth in bike commuting in Palo Alto and Mountain View.

These increases follow Caltrain’s decision in 2011 to support two bike cars on every train, substantially decreasing the number of “bike bumps” where riders can’t board the train because the bike car is full.  During the count period, Caltrain carried 24,550 bicycles over a 5 day period, with 59 riders bumped; a bump rate down to .2%.

In the Bay Area, bicycling is a useful way to make the first and last connection – according to research from SPUR, 80% of jobs in the Bay Area are within 3 miles of regional transit.

The delayed regional bike share program , with a pilot planned to go live in August, may help alleviate crowding in the bike car, once riders are able to pick up a bike at the station and drop it off at their destination. But with only 750 bikes to start in San Francisco, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose, it will be quite a while before riders can expect bike share bikes to be easily available.

Helped by nearly $6 million in added revenue driven by increased ridership, Caltrain announced at yesterday’s board meeting that the 2014 operating forecast was uneventful, with no planned service cuts.  However, the budget continues to be balanced with temporary sources, which go away after this year, so 2015 looks risky again.

In recent years, SamTrans has cut its contribution due to financial problems, the other 2 county agencies have cut to match, and much of the remaineder has been made up by VTA and Muni paying SamTrans back from its 1990s purchase of the right of way. That loan will be paid back after this year.   Even though Caltrain brings in about 60% of its revenue from riders, it gets 40% of its funding from public sources, the majority of which comes from the 3 counties. If the counties don’t start picking up the tab again, Caltrain is left with a $20 million dollar hole in its budget.

On the bright side, the San Mateo County Supervisors are considering using some revenue from a sales tax approved by voters last November to support SamTrans. This could enable SamTrans to meet its commitment to Caltrain, which would enable Caltrain’s operating funding to continue to support current service.   Supporting SamTrans was one of the top recommendations according to a recent online forum. The Supervisors will hold a hearing about the proposed transportation investments on July 9. We will post again before that meeting.

Caltrain is planning to increase the cost of parking at a stations from $4 to $5 daily.  According to Caltrain’s last study in 2008, only 27% of Caltrain riders drive and park at the station, so this is affects a minority of riders.  Compared to the cost of parking all day in some city parking facilities, the Caltrain lot is still a bargain (it costs $16 to park all day in Palo Alto, and $10 in Menlo Park).

While the 2014 operating budget is uneventful, there is a risk to this year’s capital budget, particularly train car maintenance.  SamTrans is the main source of risk in the operating budget, San Francisco/Muni is the source of risk in the capital budget. Caltrain is asking $4.8 million from each partner for capital projects.  To meet its contribution level, San Francisco would need to advance money from its Measure K funds.   If this doesn’t happen, Caltrain will continue to skimp on train car maintenance.  Reduced maintenance of aging train sets has been contributing to Caltrain’s recent reliability issues caused by mechanical breakdowns.

San Francisco is currently studying a range of measures to keep up its contributions to Caltrain. Ridership in San Francisco went up 11% last year in proportion to overall ridership increase. Caltrain is an integral piece of transportation system serving SOMA, Mission Bay, the Giants and soon the Warriors, and reliance on Caltrain will increase as there is more development in the surrounding area.  Watch for public meetings on San Francisco’s plans to support Caltrain in the next few months.

Is year by year nail-biting a good way to fund the transit backbone for San Francisco and Silicon Valley?  Obviously not.  Even if SamTrans’ financial crisis is alleviated and San Francisco gains additional funding, the system is fundamentally unstable.  Caltrain still needs stable funding.