Transit agency feud heats up

After years of repayment disputes and contract amendments, an agreement was reached in 2022 which didn’t make Caltrain fully independent but allowed the agency to hire its own executive director and begin transitioning certain functions away from SamTrans, however, the latter’s role as managing agency remained.

But recently, Shamann Walton, Caltrain board member and a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, resurfaced the issue, penning a letter to the agency stating that Caltrain should work toward becoming a separate agency. In addition to supporting its own direct relationship with CalPERS — the state agency overseeing pension benefits — Walton also stated that the fact that SamTrans solely approves salary agreements for employees is “untenable.”

The letter added that San Francisco would also not support contributions to infrastructure projects like the current Guadalupe River Bridges project unless steps toward independence are taken.

In a Caltrain board meeting in January, other Caltrain board members, mostly from Santa Clara County, were on board with reassessing the agency’s relationship to SamTrans as well, however, they didn’t explicitly endorse the agency’s full independence. 

Since then, San Mateo County-based transit leaders, both on the SamTrans and Caltrain boards, have voiced fierce opposition to Walton’s requests. 

“It’s sabotage,”Jackie Speier, SamTrans board member and San Mateo County supervisor, said during the board meeting March 4. “It is shameful that we have to do this. It is shameful that they are doing it, because we are public officials that are supposed to be working together for the common good and common purpose, and they’re talking about power grabs.”

In addition to potentially withholding funds for critical, long-standing infrastructure plans, board members also noted the catastrophic effect it would have on the success of Senate Bill 63, a regional sales tax measure that is meant to cover the gaping deficits of several major transit agencies in the Bay Area, including Caltrain, BART and AC Transit. The ballot measure will go before voters in November.

“This is sheer insanity. There is no cost savings,” Board Member Marina Fraser said during the meeting. “I wonder if someone is trying to sabotage SB 63 because why would you have this nonsense of not saving anybody money when you’ve got, at the end of the year, a taxpayer measure that is regional to help all the transit agencies? Why would you be putting stuff like this out here?” 

Discussions over whether to become an independent agency aren’t new for Caltrain. In 2021, right before the updated 2022 agreement was signed, Caltrain had weighed its options and ultimately decided not to move forward with separating itself from SamTrans, as the costs to do so, in 2021 dollars, would have been nearly $50 million in one-time costs and an additional $9 million annually, a previous analysis found.  

“They said, ‘we can’t afford it. This doesn’t make sense,’” Jim Hartnett, special counsel for SamTrans and also the former CEO of Caltrain and former general manager of SamTrans, said during the meeting. “This was their decision at the time, to say ‘we shouldn’t do this.’” 

He added that in today’s dollars, Caltrain’s annual deficit would have gone from its current $75 million annually to over $185 million annually if it had become independent. 

There are also legal issues associated with becoming an independent agency, given the numerous agreements SamTrans has with Caltrain, according to the March 4 presentation.

“This agency has restored 100% of its prepandemic ridership,” Board Member Peter Ratto said. “The agency that represents a city that [Walton] governs has not. It has reduced service and it has not restored 100% of its service, so maybe Supervisor Walton should be looking at stuff like that.”

Walton did not respond to requests for comment.