Editorial: Prevent Caltrain wreck; preserve Bay Area rail service

Standoff threatens efforts to provide the region with the fully integrated rail system it so desperately needs.

The Bay Area is witnessing what could be the worst political transportation train wreck in decades.

For the good of the region, government officials must find a compromise by Friday that prevents Caltrain from being crippled or shut down altogether in January for lack of funding. The standoff threatens efforts to provide the Bay Area with the fully integrated rail system it so desperately needs. All because of a political food fight that further threatens people’s dwindling trust in government officials’ ability to act in the public’s interests.

Residents should not look kindly at anyone who blocks the proposed November ballot measure for a 1/8-cent sales tax increase in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties to save the Peninsula commuter train system. The coronavirus pandemic reduced Caltrain’s ridership by 95%, threatening its very existence. Federal CARES Act funding will keep the trains running through December. If the tax is not put on the ballot and passed, Caltrain will have to sharply reduce or stop service.

Some Santa Clara and San Francisco county supervisors insist that if the sales tax measure passes, they should have more say in how Caltrain is governed because their constituents would pay about 80% of the $108 million the tax is expected to generate annually. They say they won’t vote this week to put the sales tax before voters without a compromise that would involve a commitment to changing how Caltrain would be governed.

It’s a reasonable request. But Caltrain’s unelected staff is reportedly undermining efforts to put the compromise before the three-county board that governs Caltrain. That’s no surprise. Even though Caltrain covers Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties, Caltrain CEO Jim Hartnett simultaneously heads up the San Mateo County Transit District and the SamTrans bus system. San Mateo County officials don’t want to give up that level of control.

Their attorney also argues that the compromise would violate state Sen. Jerry Hill’s legislation authorizing the sales tax vote. If that’s true, there is a solution. Keep the two separate. Put the tax on the ballot and draft a separate commitment from the Caltrain board to re-examine governance of the train system.

Before the pandemic, Caltrain offered service for 65,000 passengers in 2019, keeping thousands of cars off of Bay Area freeways. Caltrain’s importance stretches far beyond the Peninsula. Local, state and federal governments are spending more than $1.5 billion to electrify the system so it can double its ridership by May 2022. The investment is a crucial part of the long-range plan to link Caltrain and BART at San Jose’s Diridon station and San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal.

Caltrain is widely regarded as one of the region’s most-efficient and better-run transportation systems, compared with BART, San Francisco Muni or Santa Clara County’s VTA. But Caltrain has never had a dedicated source of funding, relying instead on riders’ fares to cover 70% of the system’s operating costs. Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties provide the bulk of the remainder.

Santa Clara and San Francisco counties signed an agreement more than a decade ago allowing San Mateo County to manage Caltrain in exchange for the two counties forgoing payments owed to the train system. The three counties have an equal number of representatives on the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers board that oversees Caltrain, but it’s widely acknowledged that Caltrain’s staff largely controls how the system operates.

Polling suggests that the sales tax that would save Caltrain stands a reasonable chance of passing. It’s time for all parties to get on board and agree to put the tax before voters with a separate agreement measure to create a process for re-examining how the rail system is governed.