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.

• Click here to register for the event
  
• Caltrain Summit flyer
• Friends of Caltrain Press Release

Tentative event schedule – Please check here for updates

(All speakers to be confirmed unless noted)

Palo Alto Patch: Grassroots Effort To Save Caltrain Rolls Forward

With catastrophic service reductions looming on Caltrain’s horizon, a concerned group of residents and civic leaders, including former Palo Alto Mayor Yoriko Kishimito, has formed a grassroots group to try save the beleagured transit agency…

Caltrain is a mainstay of Bay Area transit. Though ridership has increased dramatically with baby bullet service, and rider-based funding is among the highest in the Bay Area, Caltrain is facing a financial crisis. Unlike other Bay Area transit services with stable, dedicated funding, Caltrain depends on year-by-year funding. The recession has torn a $30 million hole in this year-by-year budget. How can Caltrain be saved and put on stable financial footing? How does Caltrain’s situation fit into the overall risks and opportunities for Bay Area transit overall?

On November 9, Friends of Caltrain is hosting an educational event where you can learn more about the situation and what you can do to help. Carolyn Clevenger of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will present preliminary findings from the MTC Transit Sustainability project. Yoriko Kishimoto, former Mayor of Palo Alto, will discuss funding opportunities for Caltrain, and opportunities to get involved.

Come learn how to save Caltrain. And if you can’t come to the event, sign up to stay posted on what you can do to help.

Location: Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma Street, near Caltrain
Time: Tuesday, November 9, 7-9 pm

Sponsors:
Friends of Caltrain
BayRail Alliance
Sierra Club
Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens’ Committee

There are two state propositions on the November ballot that if passed, would cripple our ability to improve transit, curb pollutions, and reduce our dependence on oil:

NO on Proposition 23 – Sierra Club is mounting a local campaign to stop Prop 23.

From Transform:

Texas oil companies and other major polluters are spending millions of dollars to push this ballot proposition, deceptively titled the “CA Jobs Initiative,” which will actually gut California clean energy and air pollution standards and destroy hundreds of thousands of new and future good-paying clean and green jobs…

Prop 23 is designed to kill California’s world-renowned innovative approaches to cleaning the air, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and spurring the growth of the new green economy…

Green energy and clean tech represent the one area of our economy that has continued to grow rapidly during the recession. Prop 23 would keep us dependent on fossil fuels, force us to pay more for dirty energy, foul our air and water, harm public health, and kill California’s best hopes for a healthy, successful future. Vote “NO” on Prop 23.

NO on Proposition 26: http://transformca.org/campaign/legislation/propositions

From Transform:

Prop 26 would amend the California Constitution so that nearly all regulatory fees would be redefined as taxes and therefore require approval by a 2/3 vote of the legislature or by a costly local election also requiring a supermajority.  A 2/3 vote is virtually impossible in today’s political climate.  If Prop 26 passes, environmental, consumer and public health safeguards would be severely weakened and the problems facing our communities would be dramatically further exacerbated.  The independent Legislative Analyst’s Office has found that Prop 26 could end up adding billions of dollars in additional costs each year to our state and local budgets…

Prop 26 is an extremely dangerous initiative.  Its passage would wreak havoc with our ability to maintain the most basic and critical programs: public health services, toxics mitigation and clean-up, alcohol and tobacco harm reduction campaigns, food safety, and much more.  California faces numerous challenges these next years, from jobs to education, energy and infrastructure, water, housing and climate change.  Prop 26 would prevent us from having the capacity to successfully meet these challenges.

YES on Vehicle Registration Fee Measures

BayRail is recommending YES on Measure M in San Mateo County. Measure M is a Vehicle Registration Fee program to provide needed funding to repair potholes and maintain local transit. Ballot argument: http://smartvoter.org/2010/11/02/ca/sm/meas/M/

Transform is also recommending YES on other Vehicle Registration Fee measures in other Bay Area counties. Measures in other counties provide funding (at various levels) for road maintenance and transit services.

TransForm endorses each of these measures and supported the passage of SB 83 last year which gave counties across the state the ability to levy a $10 vehicle registration fee (VRF) to fund transportation with voter approval.  TransForm has long supported user fees, such as VRFs, as ways to pay for transportation.  In this case, vehicle owners are being asked to pay for use of and impacts on the transportation system (as opposed to paying sales taxes  etc.)

• Alameda County, Measure F
• Contra Costa County, Measure O
• Marin County, Measure B
• San Francisco County, Measure AA
• Santa Clara County, Measure B
• Sonoma County, Measure W

Based on rider feedback, Caltrain is now saying that they are unlikely to cut weekend or Gilroy service. But the daily schedule is still at risk – Caltrain is considering cutting early morning, mid-day, and late night service. Yet cutting service makes the train less convenient, which drives down ridership and revenues. So it is not an effective way of balancing the budget. Other options Caltrain is considering include raising the price per zone by 25 cents, increasing the Go Pass price, and discontinuing the use of 8-ride passes by multiple riders (due to mandatory transition to Clipper Card).

At meetings held by Caltrain to get feedback on proposed service cuts, riders had different ideas about what could be done instead of cutting service to meet a budget gap. Riders had a wealth of suggestions to increase ridership and improve efficiency. Riders proposed suggestions about to run baby bullet trains on the weekends, increase bike capacity, promote commuter passes, take advantage of social campaigns such as Drive Less Challenge, promote the environmental benefits of the train, and more. Riders also had suggestions for decreasing costs without cutting service, including construction efficiencies, negotiating the terms in the upcoming labor contract.

According to the San Mateo County Times, more than 350 people have e-mailed comments to the agency so far, and more than 200 riders attended community meetings held in four cities Thursday August 19.

At an upcoming meeting at 10am on September 2, the Joint Powers Board will review rider suggestions and Caltrain staff recommendations. Let them know that cutting service is not the way to go, and keep sharing ideas for increasing ridership and saving money. Come to the meeting if you can, and keep sending your suggestions to Caltrain, at changes@caltrain.com.

The meeting is at Caltrain/Samtrans headquarters, 2nd Floor Auditorium, 1250 San Carlos Ave near the San Carlos train station.