Fighting for a Caltrain future that serves everyone

San Mateo County is fighting to protect three equal votes for all three counties who govern Caltrain. It’s that simple. Meanwhile, San Francisco and San Jose are attempting to use the COVID-19 disaster to give themselves more power. If that happens then riders, residents, downtowns, small business owners and employers located between the two giants are at risk of losing a commuter rail service which provides passenger service and economic benefits to stations of all sizes.

It’s important to remember that San Francisco and Santa Clara counties helped create the governing structure they are now holding hostage. It was formed in 1991 as a collaborative agreement between San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The agreement also appointed the San Mateo County Transit District, you know it as SamTrans, as the managing agency. San Francisco and Santa Clara reaffirmed this legal agreement in 1994, 1996 and 2008 as a result of ongoing attempts by San Mateo County to collect unpaid principal and interest payments from San Francisco and Santa Clara counties for more than $60 million of San Mateo County’s taxpayer dollars which SamTrans advanced to save, operate and improve Caltrain. In recognition of this enormous contribution, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties also agreed in 2008 SamTrans would be the managing agency for as long as SamTrans wanted that management role.

We agree, the governance structure of Caltrain must change and evolve to meet the modern needs of an electrified Caltrain. It must support a future 2040 Service Vision that grows ridership from 65,000 to upwards of 200,000 riders per day, reduces traffic congestion, reduces carbon emissions and improves quality of life for everyone by making Caltrain more accessible to riders of all income levels. In short, we need a new governance structure that protects Caltrain, its riders and all communities it serves. But holding Caltrain hostage at the eleventh hour will not bring level heads to the table and threatens the railroad’s existence.

The Caltrain board has a legal deadline of Aug. 7, to decide to place the eighth-cent sales tax on the ballot in all three counties for the November 2020 election. There is plenty of time for the governance fight, but if we don’t try saving Caltrain with new funding this November — what’s the point of a governance fight? There may be no Caltrain to govern.

While our views here are personal, we serve as elected city councilmembers and chairs for the three main transportation-related agencies serving the cities and towns of San Mateo County. We support the collective voices inside and outside of San Mateo County calling for a “clean” ballot measure without any illegal side deals or “strings” that coerce governance changes and could invalidate a successful vote on Nov. 3.

These voices include congresswomen Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo; assemblymen Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, and Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, impartial media such as the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board and StreetBlogSF and transit advocates like Friends of Caltrain and Seamless Bay Area. Please encourage San Francisco and Santa Clara counties to do the right thing. Let the voters decide in November.

Karyl Matsumoto, a member of the South San Francisco City Council, is the chair, San Mateo County Transit District Board of Directors; Emily Beach, mayor of Burlingame, is chair of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority; and Marie Chuang, a member of the Hillsborough City Council, is chair of the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County.