Caltrain Bicycle Service May Update
May 21, 2009
Dear Caltrain Bicycle Service Customer:
This latest e-mail update contains several items of good news, so pardon me in advance for the length, and thanks for reading it all the way through.
ADDING CAPACITY We are done expanding the number of bike spaces on all our gallery bike cars each gallery bike cars now have 40 bike slots each, up from 32 bike slots each.
We have completed the expansion of bike capacity on the first of our seven Bombardier bike cars. That leaves six more Bombardier bike cars to be altered to accommodate additional bike racks, and we expect to complete that work by the end of July. Converting the Bombardier cars is more complicated than anticipated and will take longer than originally expected.
When we are done, all current Bombardier bike cars will have 24 bike slots each, up from 16.
That is what we committed to doing in March, and that is what we will do. But good news we are about to do more.
We are currently identifying funding to convert two additional Bombardier cars into bike cars, each holding 24 bike slots. We expect that work to be completed in late August-early September.
When that work is complete, more than half the gallery train sets will have two bike cars and four of the five Bombardier train sets will have two bike cars.
That means the vast majority of our trains will have from 48 to 80 bike slots. Combined with our commitment to assign the two-bike-car train sets to our most heavily used peak-commute trains, this should mean a substantial improvement in the consistency of available space on the train you ride.
And we may be able to do more.
We currently are assessing the cost of converting one more Bombardier car into a bike car, which would mean that all our Bombardier train sets would be guaranteed two bike cars.
As many of you have noticed, the most impacted trains we run are the express trains, which usually are served with Bombardier cars.
The Bombardier cars have twice as many doors and low floors, which means much faster boarding and alighting for all our customers. They are our most efficient cars, so we assign them to our most heavily used trains, which are the Baby Bullet trains. Those often are the trains most heavily used by cyclists, too, but we are working to provide two bike cars on every Bombardier train and that should mean a dramatic improvement in the consistency of the service you see.
BUDGET WOES/BIKE SURCHARGE Many of you read or heard that Caltrain has a $10 million deficit. Some background on this matter was provided in the last e-mail message and it is repeated below for those of you who missed it.
To reduce the budget gap, we have to consider some unpleasant alternatives, including possibly suspending service on the weekends, suspending service to Gilroy, reducing mid-day service from half-hourly to hourly, increasing the cost of parking, increasing the cost of the GO Pass employer-based commuter program, increasing our base fare and increasing the fare we charge from zone to zone.
At the May 7 Board meeting, one of the budget-reduction proposals suggested for consideration was to levy a surcharge on bicyclists for bringing their bikes on the train. This was actually suggested by a few of our cycling customers in response to one of our recent e-mail messages. The thinking is that cyclists use a second seat for their bike, but pay no fare for that seat.
As staff has reviewed all the budget-reduction proposals, it was determined not to pursue a bicycle surcharge at this time. A bicycle surcharge will not be part of the budget proposals for the coming fiscal year.
Heres the prior explanation of our budget situation:
We are heading into troubled financial waters. The state has eliminated a major source of funding for transit, and it will hit Caltrain particularly hard and complicate an already-complex funding relationship between the partners who own the railroad.
The Joint Powers Board is a partnership of three transit agencies the San Mateo County Transit District, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency. Each is an independent agency with its own budget.
Each agency funds Caltrain operations out of its general fund there is no dedicated, permanent source of funding for the rail system. In these tough times, each partner agency is tightening its belt and looking for ways to cut costs.
While the farebox our paying customers is an important source of revenue, the price our customers pay for a ticket does not cover our expenses.
In fact, for every dollar it costs to operate Caltrain, we make back about 40-45 cents from our customers. In other words, every ride costs us money. That means the rest of our operating costs must be subsidized by the partner agencies and by other sources.
We will be working hard over the next several weeks to balance our budget for this coming fiscal year, and we will be working equally hard in the long-term to identify a permanent source of funding for Caltrain. In the meantime, we continue to do the best we can with diminishing resources.
BIKE TAGS Our popular yellow destination tags reusable, sturdy plastic are coming back. We eliminated them some time ago as one more cost-saving measure, and directed people to a downloadable tag on our Web site at http://www.caltrain.com/Bike_Tag_Info.html.
You can still use those downloadable tags, but we figured out a way to squeeze a little more money out of the budget to bring back this popular item.
We have ordered 10,000 of the new tags and it is our hope that will last us for a while. They should be available by mid- to late June.
You will be able to find them at the ticket offices at the San Francisco and San Jose stations. Also we can mail them to you if you contact our Customer Service Center. You can find contact information at this link: http://www.caltrain.com/contact.html
Or you can always write to me directly at simonm@samtrans.com.
STAY IN TOUCH As we have been rolling out additional capacity and doing all we can to provide two bike cars on as many trains as possible, we appreciate your patience and your loyalty to our service. We are committed to expanding bike capacity in the immediate future, and then taking a look at how well it is working.
Your patronage is important to us.
As always, we like hearing from you and encourage you to contact us directly with any of your thoughts, concerns and suggestions. Due to the volume of e-mail, I cant respond to everyone individually, but I will do the best I can when your concern is a specific one.
Best regards,
Mark Simon
Special Assistant to the CEO
Caltrain
simonm@samtrans.com
650.508.6340
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