SamTrans awaiting VTA and San Francisco about reimbursement

“We’d certainly like to hear back soon. It’s been 30 years since the initial promises and 12 years since the latest promises,” Stone said.

SamTrans is calling on its fellow Joint Powers Board members, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the city and county of San Francisco, to provide a written response about reimbursement details from its initial $82 million investment in 1991. San Mateo, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties formed the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board and purchased the railroad right of way for Caltrain, using state funds and money advanced by SamTrans. The transit agency said the $82 million debt is worth more than $150 million in today’s dollars. The SamTrans board June 22 passed a resolution authorizing Mau to send a letter to the agencies and take any action necessary to implement the reimbursement of funds.

The SamTrans resolution has led to uncertainty and a breakdown in discussions about the future of Caltrain governance. Discussions have focused on Caltrain’s current status in the region and the next steps in the 2021 governance model process, including talks about keeping the current Caltrain structure, a new model or possible mergers.

Some board members at a June 25 Caltrain governance meeting purposefully left early over the potential concerns of litigation based on the SamTrans resolution. Other members representing VTA and the city and county of San Francisco were not present. VTA sent a letter to Caltrain officials before the meeting asking it be postponed, citing the issue of the reimbursement of the right of way and potential legal issues. VTA has previously said its legal department was assessing the threat of litigation, and it would not make any further statements at this time.

While Mau has yet to receive a formal response to the SamTrans letter, he noted it had been cited in recent Caltrain governance discussions.

“While I have received no formal responses as Director Stone mentioned, that letter was referenced by VTA in a letter that they sent to the JPB executive director in advance of the governance workshop asking that they postpone the workshop until VTA representatives and VTA have the opportunity to evaluate how that letter might impact the whole governance process and the discussions,” Mau said.

Stone said the right of way reimbursement issue was between the member agencies and not the Caltrain board. He noted the Caltrain board has its hands full with the governance process, getting service levels back up and other board issues. Stone did not recommend spending significant time on things that didn’t involve it.

“It would be odd to me that the Caltrain JPB get too involved with it because there isn’t much the Caltrain JPB can do,” he said.

Stone wanted to see the governance discussion continue, but he was not entirely clear on what will happen at the next regularly scheduled governance meeting when updating the SamTrans board on July 7. Two additional special meetings on governance are currently scheduled for Aug. 20 and Oct. 22.

“I’m not exactly sure what’s in the works, and as soon as I know, I will make sure that we all know,” Stone said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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