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.Caltrain staff to reconsider fare increases
At the Caltrain Joint Powers Board meeting on Thursday Feb 2, Executive Director Mike Scanlon said that based on feedback from riders in person and in writing, staff would reconsider the proposal to raise fares on paper tickets and eliminate the 8-ride fare.
A dozen riders spoke against the fare increases at the board meeting, adding to dozens of comments in public forums and in writing, largely opposed to the fare increases. Speakers described a variety of reasons for using the 8-ride passes: a professor, the parent of a student, a retired person, a consultant – there are many people who are regular riders of Caltrain, who don’t have the type of daily commute that benefits from a monthly pass.
It seemed clear that Caltrain does not have a clear picture of which riders use the 8-ride discount and paper tickets. How many are tourists and visitors? How many are frequent riders who don’t have a daily commute? How many have experienced usability issues with Clipper? Who will pay the fare, and who might drive instead? What’s the best number of rides in a discount pack to encourage more rides? Before making decisions about pricing, Caltrain needs better understanding about who is using these fares and what their needs are.
February 6th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
The 8-ride tickets were great when they were on “paper”. Having them on clipper creates the following problems:
* Once you use them up, you can’t give them to someone else when done. This happens when I buy 8-rides one month, but monthly pass the next month
* Clipper readers don’t properly display how many rides you have left if you buy multiple 8-rides. You also CAN’T buy multiple 8-rides online at the same time.
Since 8-rides are geared for occasional “regular” riders, and most of these rides already have clipper, one solution was to give the same 8-ride discount anytime you use your clipper card, and leave costs of paper tickets alone.
Now here’s the kicker. You can make clipper tickets cheaper two ways:
1) Lower prices of single rides via clipper
2) Raises prices of paper tickets
Caltrain took option #2 probably because they’re due another increase.
February 6th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
It’s appalling how incredibly disconnected JPB is from the system theymanage yet so rarely if ever use. This article makes train commuters to he some strange remote species in need of scientific investigation.
February 8th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Isn’t it just a lack of immagination that kept the 8-ride metaphor alive in an electronic fare system? You only have to look at London’s Oyster system to see that a paperless medium can offer so much flexibility that even occasional visitors flock to it. Case in point: buy enough single rides in a specific time period (one day, one week-end, one week) and as soon as your “cap” is met, the remaining rides in that period are free. That’s an attractive way of offering valid discounts to regular riders who do not travel every day. C’mon Caltrain, you can do better!
March 2nd, 2012 at 6:01 am
It seems clear to me that Caltrain staff would like to kill off the 8-ride product. At yesterday’s JPB meeting the Board voted on the staff proposal to shorten the validity period to 30 days and raise the fare. Doesn’t look they really listened to the groundswell of public opinion, does it?
March 5th, 2012 at 11:01 am
The opportunity (and current slow progress) is in the hands of the MTC. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there could be regional discounts so your rides on Caltrain, BART, SamTrans, VTA and Muni would all counts? MTC would need cooperation from agencies. Customer demand would help.