At today’s Caltrain board meeting, the board members reviewed an ominous presentation about Caltrain’s financial situation in the Covid pandemic. Shockingly, without additional funding, system shutdown is a possibility that on a slide presented to the board.
Caltrain is receiving $49 million in federal CARES Act funding which will cover keeping the system open this fiscal year through June and several months into next fiscal year.
As the impact of the pandemic becomes clearer, the situation looks dire. Pre-pandemic, Caltrain got about 2/3 of its funding from riders, and most of the remainder from three county partners that are also facing budget disasters. With a still-circulating pandemic, Caltrain will need to maintain restrictions to allow social distancing on trains, and won’t be able to carry a full load of passengers – even 75% of the previous ridership level wouldn’t allow social distancing, and that would leave a $22 million budget hole.
If you are dismayed by the possibility of shutting down Caltrain, please contact your member of Congress – they are slated to start to consider the next round of federal stimulus funding as soon as tomorrow, Friday, May 8 – please click here to call or write to urge funding for public transit.
The grim financial picture puts the consideration of a November ballot measure in a different light. While a ballot measure during an epidemic and recession may seem daunting, we wonder whether voters – even with shaky household finances – would vote for a 1/8 cent sales tax if the other option was to shut Caltrain down and dump another 4 lanes worth of cars onto highway 101.
The Bay Area is predicted to face crippling traffic if workers head back to offices and don’t have available and safe public transit.
why don’t they cut their service schedule to reduce costs to meet demand like any other reasonable services during this crisis? Running at full expense load is nonsensical.
Caltrain has cut its service to hourly. Also, the Federal CARES Act does not allow layoffs of workers. Caltrain has cut overtime and fuel costs.
[…] damaged. This morning, the Caltrain board heard a financial update including a scenario in which Caltrain may need to shut down without additional funding in the next year, since rider funding and member agency funding are both […]
I don’t see anywhere in the CARES Act where it prohibits Caltrain from doing layoffs. Note that all rail service is contracted out to a private corporation, so Caltrain has very few employees. Quoting from the FTA FAQ: “Expenses under third-party contracts for operations or maintenance services incurred on or after January 20, 2020, including third-party contract employees providing such service who are placed on administrative leave due to reduced service, are eligible for federal reimbursement. Whether an FTA recipient is responsible for such administrative leave will depend on the terms of its third-party contract.”
I would presume Caltrain’s contract allowed for this kind of extraordinary circumstances, where most service has to be cancelled. Because otherwise, what is the point of contracting out the service to a private corporation?
[…] If solutions aren’t found, one of the options – crazy as it sounds – is to shut down a line that the state is investing $2 billion to electrify, and would dump 4 lanes of cares onto […]
[…] Caltrain facing a possible shutdown, transportation advocates are organizing a Friday, May 22 noon webinar to discuss the commuter […]