Caltrain’s future is at stake; Peninsula must unify to win

I have to confess. I love Caltrain. It’s the spine of the Peninsula’s transportation system and has been for over 150 years. Its importance to Bay Area commuters cannot be overstated. It carried 24,000 daily riders in 2004, and the ridership increased to a whopping 65,000 daily in 2019 (pre-COVID-19).

Some recent history. Over a decade ago, the Peninsula rejected the High-Speed Rail Authority’s unwise plan and instead decided that Caltrain would be our high-speed rail system. To make Caltrain a 21st-century transportation system required replacing the old diesel trains with new electric cars that would be faster, quieter and cleaner; reducing emissions by 96%; and nearly doubling the ridership to 110,000 daily riders, taking thousands of cars off Highway 101.

I led the effort in Congress with my Bay Area colleagues to secure a $647 million federal grant to supplement the over $1 billion in state and local funding to electrify Caltrain. We won a major victory because we were united: all three counties, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara together. We formed a coalition of local businesses, local governments, the riders, and the environmental community, and today, the work of electrifying Caltrain, which will create 10,000 American jobs, is underway, and completion is expected in May 2022.

Here’s where we are now. Caltrain’s costs have never been completely covered because it does not have a dedicated source of funding for its operations. Farebox revenue covers 70% of Caltrain operating costs, so the system relies on grants, bonds and contributions from local transit agencies to make up the difference. That’s why in 2017, the state Legislature authorized Caltrain to put a 1/8cent sales tax measure on the ballot in the three counties Caltrain serves. The boards of supervisors of each county must approve the measure before the Aug. 7 deadline for it to be on the November ballot. If approved by the voters, this new revenue stream will provide Caltrain $100 million in dedicated revenue, ensuring its solvency for years to come. As my father would say, “This will get the job done.”

One would think there’d be a heightened sense of urgency by elected officials to act in unity by putting our constituents, the riders and our collective transportation future first. Instead, there’s a three-county squabble over who can hire and fire Caltrain’s staff and what county can keep monies raised within their borders for whatever they want, and the public be damned. This not only ignores the state law that requires the revenue to go to Caltrain, it’s a dangerous game to see who blinks first. The people of our region deserve so much better than this because surely no one will congratulate an elected official for allowing the entire system to fail.

The questions about Caltrain’s governance should be taken seriously, but they shouldn’t be used as a cudgel to determine whether this issue is placed on the ballot by Aug. 7. Reorganizing Caltrain’s staff would be a bureaucratic challenge in good times. But with Caltrain currently struggling just to keep the trains running, now is the worst possible time to upend the staff structure that has worked well for over 30 years. People are more worried about keeping Caltrain running than who hires its staff.

What it all boils down to is whether Caltrain will keep operating or whether it will be derailed by petty politics and small thinking. For a region that has produced so many Nobel Prize winners, is home to our nation’s top research learning institutions, and is the innovation capital of the world, big thinking must prevail for the good of our people. Let’s get on board and ride into the future together.

Reorganizing Caltrain’s staff would be a bureaucratic challenge in good times. But with Caltrain currently struggling just to keep the trains running, now is the worst possible time to upend the staff structure that has worked well for over 30 years.