Caltrain is extending its discount youth fare this fall, based on strong ridership increase from the past year’s promotional program. Caltrain’s youth fare promotion resulted in youth ridership growing at more than twice the pace over overall ridership growth, with a 43% year-over-year increase in Youth Clipper utilization compared to overall ticket sales growth of 18%.

Learning from these results, on September 1, Caltrain will roll out

• a $1 All Zone One-way fare available on all media. 
• a $2 All Zone Day Pass available on Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) and Mobile App (while available). 

Once the next-generation Clipper system is available, Caltrain will implement a $24 All Zone Monthly Pass available on Youth Clipper Card.

The next-generation Clipper system, which will provide free and reduced priced transfers and open payment for credit/debit cards, previously planned to roll out in August, is delayed. An announcement of an updated schedule is expected in September (watch for the September meeting of the Clipper Executive Board for details.)

The youth fare was the most successful of the promotions that Caltrain tested in September 2023. The other promotions, a 3-Day Pass, Family Day Pass, and Group Day Pass saw more modest adoption,

Caltrain estimates that the implementation of Youth fares program could reduce short term fare revenue by an estimated range of $100,000 to $530,000, based on analysis of 2024 historical data. This is on the order of magnitude of 1% of Caltrain’s fare revenue and .1% of overall revenue. And, Caltrain estimates that increased ridership by youth and families will fully or partly offset the revenue decrease, to the tune of $220,000 to $650,000.

FY24: Total revenue: 194,752,203  |  Fare revenue $29,936,000

FY25: Total revenue: 208,728,162  |  Fare revenue $35,923,200

Some critics raise concerns that the youth discount is available to all youth, not only to low-income youth. However, the additional administrative burden on users would greatly reduce the uptake of the discount, and additional the additional administration and marketing needed to manage a youth discount would add to the cost. Plus, young people using transit are more likely to become longterm transit users when they are old enough to drive and have more money for the cost of driving.