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.Event: Summit to Save Caltrain (January 29)
The future of Caltrain is in your hands. Thanks to you the riders, Caltrain is running the Baby Bullet on the weekends, but without further funding, there may be no weekend trains at all. We can work together to find solutions to ensure the future viability of Caltrain.
Caltrain generates among Bay Area public transit’s highest fare revenue per dollar of operating cost. Caltrain operations are 2x more self-sustaining than MUNI, 3x more self-sustaining than SamTrans, and 4x more self-sustaining than VTA. Despite this exemplary financial performance, Caltrain faces a severe fiscal crisis! Unlike every other transit agency, Caltrain has no dedicated source of funding to cover the remainder of its operating costs. What it managed to scrounge together in past years is no longer available, blowing a $30 million hole in a $100 million budget.
As residents, commuters and taxpayers, we must speak up and support solutions leading to Caltrain’s survival and long term viability and modernization. We will need operating funding help, with or without high-speed rail.
You are invited to participate in a Summit to Save Caltrain
Location: SamTrans Auditorium,
1250 San Carlos Avenue, San Carlos (near Caltrain)
Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011 Time: 8:30 am to 2:30 pm.
Tentative event schedule – Please check here for updates
(All speakers to be confirmed unless noted)
| 8:30 – 9:15 | Registration & Coffee |
| 9:15 – 9:45 | Keynote: Congresswoman Jackie Speier; Michael Brune (Sierra Club) |
| 9:45 – 10:45 | Panel 1: The Caltrain Story
Speakers: Chuck Harvey or Michelle Bouchard; Sean Elsbernd; Silicon Valley Employer & Go Pass Member; Peninsula Mayor Moderator: Sue Lempert |
| 10:45 – 11:00 | Break |
| 11:00 – 12:00 | Panel 2: Seeking Sustainable Funding model for Caltrain (and priming pump for your ideas)
Speakers: Rebecca Long, MTC; Jim Bigelow (pre-tax dollars); Carli Paine, Transform (regional rail, faith groups, unions); Jessica Zenk, SVLG, Clem Tillier (service design), Shirley Johnson (bikes/last mile) Moderator: Jay Thorwaldson |
| Lunch | |
| 12:30 – 2:00 | Empowering Grassroots in Breakout Rooms |
| 2:00 – 2:30 | Wrap-up and Next Steps: “Building the Momentum” |
January 27th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I’m curious if Caltrain has considered adding vendors to popular stops (such as the bullet train stops). I know a lot of commuters at the Redwood City Caltrain stop would love to grab dinner at the stop on the way home for the evening commute. Food carts would be great to have along side the tracks. Snack vendors on the trains themselves would also be great.
I think a lot of money could be made this way to help save Caltrain!
February 1st, 2011 at 1:05 am
I think the best solution is for Caltrain and BART to merge. They could then work together more productively, serving more riders overall. For example, BART tracks run directly underneath the San Bruno Caltrain station. There should be a BART transfer station there. This didn’t happen because the two agencies compete with each other and actually make decisions to prevent people from transferring to the other service. The commuter rail services of the bay area need to be managed together, under a common funding base and a common plan, to best serve our region.
February 4th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
I think Todd is on to something.
Similarly, one of the stations proposed for closure is Bayshore in Brisbane. That station is a long block away from San Francisco’s light rail and the SamTrans bus runs. This is a difficult block for people to negotiate on foot and connections are critical. I think they need to be in negotiations with all of the bus lines to make connections throughout the system….then advertise.