San Mateo County transit accountability plan underway to outline ways for operators to increase efficiencies ahead of regional sales tax ballot measure

If successful, the November ballot measure, known as Connect Bay Area, would impose a sales tax in four Bay Area counties, including San Mateo County, for 14 years, in large part to narrow the gaping deficits of major operators, such as Caltrain, BART, Muni and AC Transit.

Caltrain faces a $75 million average annual deficit and has repeatedly claimed it could significantly cut service, or shut down passenger rail service altogether, in the next couple years if it doesn’t receive a significant injection of external funding. BART has also made similar claims as it faces an average $376 million annual deficit.

According to the recent report, however, BART saw about $516 million in savings — roughly 9% of its operating costs — between 2020-25, which was attributed to “optimized train lengths, wage freezes for most employees, reduced bus feeder payments, strategic hiring freezes, and broad reductions in non-labor costs,” the report said.

Caltrain saw about $76 million in savings, about 7% of operating costs, driven largely by “a strategic hiring freeze, elimination of the standalone mobile app, reductions in special trains, improved operator crew efficiency and overtime reduction, and integration of electrification infrastructure maintenance into existing operating contracts.”

The report also detailed early action strategies for how the operators could continue making further improvements. For Caltrain, some of those included enhancing parking revenue, leasing fiber and communications assets and “exploring efficiencies when procuring and negotiating the upcoming extension to the Caltrain operator contract,” which is Transit America Services, Inc.

The second phase of the report will identify and recommend more specific, concrete steps transit agencies could take.

In written comments, Gina Papan, member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said she’d also like to see operators remove “barriers that prevent retail and amenities in stations.”

“The operators need to develop plans for activation of stations and existing kiosks for retail and amenities,” she wrote.

Each transit agency board will have to decide on several of the recommended strategies to implement by July should the measure pass.

"I think it’s appropriate to put a bow on this and get it moving, because the operator boards are all meeting in June to move this forward,” Commissioner Jeff Gee said. "I can see everyone's ready to go into Phase 2."