San Mateo County Transit District awaits help from fed

The coronavirus outbreak and ensuing shelter-in-place order has wreaked havoc on ridership and revenue. Since the outbreak, Caltrain has seen a 90% ridership decline and is losing $8 million a month in revenue from fares and other sources while SamTrans ridership is down 80% and the agency is losing $1.3 million a month in fares, Murphy said. Those numbers could get worse, he added, especially once the decline in sales tax revenue is quantified, which will happen in roughly 60 days.   

Caltrain, which was facing significant financial challenges before the outbreak, gets 70% of its funding from fare box recovery, while SamTrans is heavily reliant on sales tax revenue following the passage of Measure W.

Murphy said the federal stimulus money will not be received for about a week and it’ll take an additional few days to determine the formula for distributing it in the region. The formula will be decided by the Metropolitan Transportation Agency and Murphy said initial discussions suggest Caltrain and SamTrans will benefit sufficiently.

“We’re in a good place for how the funds should be allocated,” he said, adding that the funds will “fully reflect the impacts we’ve experienced.”

While the federal stimulus money is expected to cover the transit agency’s needs in the short term, Murphy stressed long-term financial impacts are unknown.

“There are a few unknowns that’ll need to be managed moving forward,” Murphy said. “Sales tax is the biggest one. One is how long the shelter-in-place order will last and then what will ridership look like even after the order is lifted and how will that impact us financially?”

Murphy said additional federal and state stimulus funding for transportation infrastructure specifically could become available in the near future so the district is assessing which projects could be advanced in the near term if that happens. 

Murphy said the district is also still preserving the opportunity to place an eighth-cent sales tax measure for Caltrain on the November ballot in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that would generate $108 million a year for Caltrain. A separate $100 billion “mega” tax measure for transit known as FASTER Bay Area will not be placed on the November ballot after proponents last week decided to suspend the effort due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Caltrain Thursday announced it will reduce its daily weekday train service from 92 daily trains to 42 indefinitely, making all local stops between San Francisco and San Jose every 30-60 minutes. Caltrain will also suspend limited and baby bullet train service and will operate two trains to Gilroy during the morning and afternoon commute hours.

The schedule changes will begin Monday and weekend service will remain on its normal schedule 

Caltrain is still collecting fares, but SamTrans is not, the agency announced Tuesday. That day, SamTrans also began implementing rear-door boarding on buses with multiple doors in its fixed route service to comply with social distancing recommendations. 

The service cuts so far have not forced bus drivers and train conductors out of work, but those potential impacts are currently being evaluated, Murphy said. Some personnel are being transitioned to the capital side of the business to work on infrastructure projects, particularly on the Caltrain corridor, while service is down and there is a longer window in which to work.

“We’re trying to make the best of an awful situation,” he said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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