The Green Caltrain blog is sponsored by BayRail Alliance, an all-volunteer non-profit organization supporting green rail transit in the Bay Area. This blog and BayRail have no affiliation with Caltrain.Is Caltrain becoming a commuter only rail system?
On Thursday, Caltrain executive director Michael Scanlon made comments regarding the financial status of Caltrain that received coverage from various local media:
Caltrain is broke and will almost certainly need to wipe out half its service, leaving no trains on weekends, weeknights or midday and leaving the agency’s future in doubt, officials said Thursday.
“And that’s only if we’re lucky,” Caltrain CEO Mike Scanlon told the agency’s board of directors. “This is not an April fool’s joke. This is real.”
Scanlon said the cuts would need to be completed by June 2011, although the agency may begin reducing its schedule as soon as this fall. The board would vote on the cuts at a future meeting.
Officials at the agency stopped short of saying they expected the railroad to fold, but said the news calls into question its ability to survive. Scanlon said the agency’s business model is simply not sustainable.
“We’re rapidly approaching a cliff,” he said. “It’s going to be very, very painful. It’s probably going to force people back on congested freeways.”
Scanlon made the comments because of the financial status of SamTrans (transit agency in San Mateo County), which he also manages. Currently, Caltrain’s operating subsidy is provided by the three local transit agencies in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. As the head of SamTrans, he wants SamTrans to reduce Caltrain operating subsidy by 70%. Because historically all three counties increase their subsidies by the same percentage, the other two counties could also cut their subsidies by 70%; hence the large cuts proposed for off peak and weekend service.
It is too early to tell whether this threat of eliminating Caltrain off-peak service is real. Five years ago, when SamTrans was also subsidizing BART service in San Mateo County, Michael Scanlon also threatened to end weekend BART service at some stations between Colma and SFO. As a result of negotiations between BART and SamTrans, SamTrans got off the hook on additional operating subsidies for that line. That subsidy was taking an unexpected bite out of SamTrans’ budget, because prior to the the opening SamTrans thought it would generate an operating surplus instead.
Caltrain is not like BART because Caltrain does not have a dedicated tax source for operations. BART not only directly receives a portion of sales taxes in its three member counties, it also receives a cut from the bridge tolls. During the years when BART received more taxes than it was spending, BART could increase service, or put the funds into a reserve for rainy days.
On the other hand, Caltrain only receives funding from the three member transit agencies. Because of the historic practice of changing the subsidy level by consensus, Caltrain has been starved of revenue even in better economic times. Also considering that the three agencies have their own priorities, it makes long term planning hard because of the difficulty in predicting future operating revenues.
Although dedicated funding is extremely desirable, the path of getting there isn’t a simple one. It would take an act in Sacramento to establish a Caltrain special district, which would have taxing power, and approval by voters to establish a new tax or fee. Considering that there’s much more political resistance against cutting rail service than cutting bus service, local bus service would be in a greater jeopardy if politicians in the three counties aren’t ready to seek dedicated revenue for Caltrain.
Whether or not the SamTrans board has the will to cut Caltrain subsidy, Caltrain should be converted into a special district as soon as possible so that we can have a real dialogue about dedicated funding. This is not the first time Caltrain is having a financial crisis (the last one was just a year ago), and this will not be the last one.
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If commuters are not willing to fit the Caltrain bill why should taxpayers do?
Caltrain late night service is only used by a handful of people
Cutting late night service to close the budget is a no brainer
Caltrain, without subsidy, cannot compete with the highly subsidized 101 and 280. If drivers were paying the true cost of their access to highways, Caltrain wouldn’t have any issue running trains every 15 minutes 7 days a week.
Yes, please focus Caltrain only on M – F commute times. Its irresponsible to run empty trains up and down the peninsula.
Save the money for electrification, and expand the time periods with smaller EMUs, as load increases.
Late night service is important to folks who need to be able to work late or work non typical hours.
Having taken the train late at night I do agree that those trains are not very crowded – could we run a less expensive train then? (Fewer crew, less heavy, less fuel)?
The trains aren’t empty on nights and weekends. Off peak/weekend service is needed because there’s no other transit alternatives available. Local bus service has been cut down to the bones.
I don’t take weekend service because it’s terrible. Instead I find other places to spend my weekends, like those served by BART, which is heavily used on weekends. If you provide crappy service, people won’t use it, then people don’t use it, so you cancel it. Rather than provide good service which people will use.
[...] to follow the most recent developments. One of its most recent post looks at the specter of turning Caltrain into a commuter-only rail system, as well as exploring Caltrain's funding situation. Another dissects "anti-Caltrain [...]
Off-peak service is necessary or they will lose my peak revenue as well. I pretty much always ride the same train in the morning (#312 from SF to Mountain View), but I estimate that 30-40% of the time I take a local train home late. Sometimes it is to finish a project at the office and sometimes it is to stay in the area and see friends, go to the Sharks, etc. If I don’t have a train to take home and have to rely on a multi-hour trip over to the East Bay to get home, forget it. I want to be “environmentally friendly,” but there is a limit.
It’s very frustrating to see people want to limit transit to commute hours. Are we supposed to just stay home between 7 pm and 7 am?? Or should we get in the car and drive? We should look at the whole picture. Some buses and trains will be less used, and some will be packed to the gills. It is just the way life is.
When was the last time any of use flew on an airplane that was less than half full? Ten years?
Whether Caltrain is privately run or through the government, it needs to be economically viable.
This is not a time for excess waste.
Whoa, what is going on here? Economically viable? When was the last time 101 turned a profit? University Avenue? It’s a public transportation system, and it provides a public good and — while it would be nice — should not have to turn a profit. It keeps cars off the road, generates economic benefits for those riding it (and the businesses they work at or visit) and much more.
Also, I encourage the people saying they should cut off-peak service because of empty trains — try actually riding an off-peak train. I ride them often, and they’re often pretty full. I can’t speak to the mid-day weekday trains, but the weekend and late-night trains are often crowded.
If you have a chance please take a picture onboard or on the platform to show others that people do take Caltrain at off peak times, and that making it a commute-only service is not acceptable. Thanks.
Midday trains are actually pretty empty: most people are, logically enough, at work. Late night trains are pretty sparsely populated going northbound (they only open three cars), but southbound trains tend to be more full leaving SF. I’ve seen a few of the weekend trains at capacity, but that depends on weather, events, and so on. There’s definitely plenty of demand for all of that service. I hope Caltrain takes a serious look at improving efficiency: cutting assistant conductors is one possibility, another one is more efficient scheduling, especially on weekends, when they use 5 trains where 4 would suffice, and a day’s work for a crew is a single round trip.
Weekend trains often are so full that I can’t find a seat and have to stand. SamTrans on the other hand is a joke, I’d rather walk three miles than take one of those busses, especially on weekends when I have found myself the only passenger multiple times. Is it not obvious where our priorities should be?
When was the last time any of use flew on an airplane that was less than half full? Ten years?
Whether Caltrain is privately run or through the government, it needs to be economically viable.
This is not a time for excess waste.