Caltrain, SamTrans to get federal funds

“This funding is critical,” said Dan Lieberman, spokesman for both Caltrain and SamTrans. “The funds provide much needed immediate relief that will help mitigate the worst impacts of COVID-19 in the near term. … Without these funds, both agencies would likely have had deeper service cuts and would currently be looking at furloughs and layoffs.”

The money comes as Caltrain has seen 90% decline in ridership while SamTrans ridership is down 80%. Both agencies are currently offering significantly reduced service.

In this round of relief funding, a total of $780 million was allocated to Bay Area transit agencies. A second round of funding, also from the CARES Act, is expected to come in July. In total, Bay Area transit agencies are getting $1.3 billion of the total $25 billion the federal government has set aside for transit agencies.

The first round of funding represents 60% of the federal funding coming to Bay Area transit agencies and the second round will be 40% of funding.

The allocation for Caltrain and SamTrans is compared to $251.6 million for BART, $197 million for SFMTA, $80.3 million for AC Transit and $73 million for VTA, to name a few agencies and their allocations.

During a meeting last week, Alix Bockelman, deputy director of policy for MTC, said the distribution of money among Bay Area agencies was “tricky.”

“The distribution among operators was tricky. We were trying to balance the needs of the two dozen systems with unique and diverse revenue sources, some of which would be hit harder and sooner than others,” she said.

Lieberman noted that while the relief funding provided by the CARES Act is critical, it won’t be enough to sustain Caltrain and SamTrans over the long term.

“The stabilization of transit systems over the long term will require additional resources in addition to the tranche of CARES Act funding that MTC will allocate in the future,” he said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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