I agree with Mark Simon’s denunciation of Caltrain Board of Directors members from San Francisco and Santa Clara County in his March 25 column “How to destroy Caltrain.” I do so as a disbeliever in the 1990s about newly-formed Caltrain’s ability to operate — without enormous taxpayer subsidy — an efficient rail transit system for the people of San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and the City and County of San Francisco.
I favored right-of-way acquisition by BART on the San Francisco Peninsula rather than establishment of yet one more transit district in the nine Bay Area counties. Despite foolishly overpaying Southern Pacific Co. millions of dollars for such right-of-way, Caltrain has succeeded beyond my expectation with SamTrans’ successful management. Before the pandemic, Caltrain’s fare box recovery ratio, primary measurement of public transit efficiency, had risen to about 65%, while Santa Clara’s VTA recovered but 15% and the Municipal Railway about 25% of its operational costs from fares. San Francisco and Santa Clara counties still owe SamTrans millions for San Mateo County’s advancement of taxpayer money to buy the Southern Pacific right-of-way and are manifestly unequipped to operate Caltrain effectively.
Merger of BART and Caltrain is, however, worth consideration. BART operated with a slightly higher fare box recovery ratio prepandemic than Caltrain. MTC has wrongfully enabled formation of 28 different transit agencies in the Bay Area, unjustifiably increasing taxpayer expenses.
Judge Quentin L. Kopp (Ret.)
San Francisco
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April 09, 2021 at 06:00PM
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Simon is correct | Letters To Editor | smdailyjournal.com - San Mateo Daily Journal
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