Supervisors should put Caltrain sales tax before voters
Today, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will have the opportunity to give voters the option to keep Caltrain service running and provide stable funding for rail service from Santa Clara County to San Francisco, which is an irreplaceable link in the regional transit network. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors almost let their decision to advance the ballot measure die last week over Caltrain governance issues, but they are working to revive it.
A one-eighth-cent sales tax would provide dedicated funding for Caltrain service, whose revenue has been decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing a shutdown this fall that would force thousands of people out of the train and into their cars when the economy begins to recover. Beyond the pandemic, the tax would support faster, more frequent service with an electrified line in the not-too-distant future.
Polling has indicated robust support for the sales tax measure, and it is likely to pass with a strong campaign. Recognizing that sales tax measures are regressive, we are pleased and inspired by Caltrain’s goals to use the funding to make the service more affordable and accessible to people across the income spectrum, while making the service faster, more frequent, better connected and for everyone. Looking forward, our region must urgently prioritize authorizing more progressive means of funding transit, so we can transition away from sales taxes in the medium and long term.
Six different boards need to give permission for the Caltrain board to put the measure on the ballot. This complex structure to provide funding for rail service along the Peninsula is just one example of the overcomplicated governance of the Bay Area’s transit system, which results in service that is uncoordinated, complicated to use and moves fewer people than it would if it were better organized. Seamless Bay Area supports improving the governance of the Bay Area’s disorganized public transportation system. We strongly agree with the majority of the current Caltrain board that the status quo governance will not meet the future needs of rail service along the Peninsula corridor.
We agree with the regional think tank SPUR, in its recent letter to the Caltrain board, that the governance challenges for Caltrain can’t be solved in isolation. To achieve a more integrated, better-performing system, with integrated fares, coordinated schedules and wellmanaged expansion projects, the governance reform of Caltrain the institution should be reckoned with in context of the transit governance of the entire region.
We want to see these regional governance goals addressed through a broader regional rethink of public transit. The regional-based Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force is the appropriate forum for evaluating governance options to better serve our region’s transit riders.
We strongly urge the region’s decision-makers to avoid any attempt to attach conditions on the sales tax measure that will prevent the Peninsula rail corridor from serving as a well-integrated component of a regional transit system, with integrated, affordable fares, coordinated schedules between bus and rail, easily accessible stations and fast, reliable, frequent service.
We urge our region’s leaders to do the right thing, get the measure on the ballot and work together to fund and reorganize our region’s transit system to improve equity, access, environmental sustainability for all.
While other cities around the world are doing everything they can to bring people back to transit, will the Bay Area turn its back?