Caltrain to furlough 40 positions starting in January

Caltrain originally had plans to furlough around 90 people, around 20% of its workforce, Bouchard said. Caltrain instituted a hiring freeze over the past few months to decrease the proposed furlough numbers. Caltrain said retirements and workers leaving also reduced the number of people it will need to furlough. Caltrain has more than 450 workers who provide operations and maintenance services. Some of the positions expected to be furloughed are vacant. The furloughs will be spread throughout Caltrain and would not just be engineers or conductors, Bouchard said. Caltrain is working with TASI to figure out how to best make decisions about furloughs, Bouchard said.

According to Caltrain meeting documents, the second half of the 2020-21 operating budget is $66 million for a cumulative full-year budget total of $144 million. The 2021 fiscal year capital budget went from around $84 million to $82 million.

The furloughs were just one part of Caltrain’s difficulty in putting together its 2021 budgets. According to Caltrain official Derek Hansel, its 2021 fiscal year budget will also have an estimated $25.5 million deficit. Hansel said there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding future budgeting because of the pandemic and lack of riders.

Caltrain has lost most fare revenue and most riders, with only about 5% of prepandemic riders still taking Caltrain, Lieberman said. Funding from the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act is also ending in December. Caltrain will use reserve funds and a line of credit funding to meet its future budget, Hansel said. The approved budgets will also use about half of Caltrain reserves, and there is now $7 million left in those funds, Hansel said.

Caltrain will also have to leverage Measure RR funds in the upcoming years to meet its budget, Hansel said. Measure RR, an eighth-cent sales tax for 30 years approved in November by voters in San Mateo, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, will provide much-needed breathing room. Measure RR will generate $100 million per year for Caltrain. Measure RR collection doesn’t start until July, and the first payment will be made around September, with a gap over the next few months. The delay is why Caltrain needs to look for cash flow to address the gap, Hansel said. Caltrain doesn’t expect Measure RR to cover all of the 2022 budget concerns. Caltrain also expects similar challenges for its 2022 budget because of expected decreased ridership in future years.

Caltrain Board Member Steve Heminger, representing the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, wants to see Caltrain do more to fill empty seats to increase revenue and help its budget. He believes it could be at least another fiscal year before ridership returns to normal, putting additional strain on the 2022 budget.

“I do hope we can spend more time and pay more attention to boost ridership and boost confidence in the system,” Heminger said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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