Caltrain will hold 4 drop in meetings on Thursday, August 19 to seek rider feedback on various service reduction and fare increase proposals. Caltrain needs to reduce spending and/or increase revenue to close the $1.2 million budget gap for this fiscal year.

Proposals to be considered:

• Suspend all weekend service
• Reduce weekday early morning, midday and/or late evening service
• Suspend service south of Tamien station to Gilroy
• Discontinue staffed ticket offices
• Increase the full fare one way base or zone fares by 25 cents, with corresponding changes to related fare media
• Increase Go Pass prices to $155
• Modify parking fees and regulations
• Revise fare policies to match with Clipper card policies, as Caltrain is mandated by MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Commission) to eliminate multi-ride paper tickets/passes and offer those for Clipper cards only.
  • Discontinue monthly pass grace period
  • 8-ride tickets only be used by one rider only
  • Youth means 17 years old or under

The drop in meetings will be held at three locations from 6:00pm to 7:00pm on August 19:

• SF Caltrain Station
• SamTrans building in San Carlos (1250 San Carlos Avenue) – one block away from San Carlos Station
• San Jose Diridon Station

A drop in meeting will also be held at Gilroy Station between 5:30pm and 7:47pm to meet with all train arrivals.

As reported previously, many of those service reduction ideas won’t save much money, especially on weekend service where there’s a higher percentage of riders buying one way tickets and day passes.

If you live in Santa Clara County, it is important to note that VTA subsidizes Caltrain at less than $16 million last year and less than $15 million this year. In comparison, the proposed BART line from Berryessa Flea Market (which is totally funded by VTA) to the Alameda county line would receive more than twice of that amount (about $35-37 million) for operation from a VTA sales tax. The Berryessa line would only be less than 7 miles yet Caltrain runs 17 miles from Palo Alto to San Jose and another 30 miles from San Jose to Gilroy. Consider how much more service Caltrain can provide if VTA (along with SamTrans and Muni) were to contribute as much as it plans to subsidize a BART line. Gilroy and Morgan Hill riders need to demand VTA to treat South County riders more equally, and that VTA should not pursing expanding one rail system in northern part of the county and cutting service on another system serving the southern part of the county.

Regardless of where you live, please demand your JPB representative and your local transit agency to support Caltrain, and that a well funded Caltrain system would help improve ridership on local transit systems as well.

Whether you’re able to attend the meetings, you can send an email to changes@caltrain.com (also CC us at caltrainchange@bayrailalliance.org). You can also attend the JPB meeting on September 2 at 10am (See event calendar for details). If you have any new ideas to increase ridership (and revenue) and cut expenses for Caltrain, please let us and Caltrain know.