A major change was disclosed quietly on Caltrain’s list of GoPass customers. Â Tech powerhouse Google, Â known for its fleet of private shuttles taking employees home to neighborhoods in San Francisco, Oakland, and across the Bay Area, has joined the list of corporate customers of the bulk-pricing program, which provides discounts of nearly 90% for organizations that purchase passes for their entire site.
Google’s transportation team has long been interested in the potential for greater use of the public transit system, but have been concerned about Caltrain’s plans to add capacity to keep up with ridership increases.
Stanford, a longstanding major GoPass customer, has implemented a pilot program providing Go Passes for graduate students who live off campus.
The need to keep up with ridership increases has prompted major employers to join a consortium to encourage planning and funding to help Caltrain keep up with ridership growth.
Given how crowded Caltrain is should it really further discount fares instead of expanding capacity?
How many additional train can operate with this additional revenue from Google? Is it possible to add 2~3 round trip?
We don’t know what Google site is using it and how much revenue. Regardless, with all of the increase in ridership already it would make sense to add frequency.
The way the Go Pass works, the customer buys it for everyone at the location. The logic is that the agency will make the same amount of money as if a smaller number of people had gotten regular monthly passes. Caltrain has not said clearly about whether they are successful with this goal. They are already buying extra used cars to add capacity before electrification.
[…] joined a recently created Caltrain Commuter Coalition aka “C3.” Google has even bought into Caltrain’s GoPass program, in which Google pays a heavily discounted fee to Caltrain for an annual pass for all employees at […]
[…] a just lately created Caltrain Commuter Coalition aka “C3.” Google has even purchased into Caltrain’s GoPass program, during which Google pays a closely discounted charge to Caltrain for an annual cross for all staff […]