5 responses to “Keeping SamTrans Solvent”

1. JF

   August 14, 2012

   I’m a frwquent commuter on Caltrain and I can say that rarely (as in 10% of the time) does a conductor check for tickets. The train has also been attracting many more aggressive young people. Fix those 2 problems and Caltrain will won’t be a taxpayer money pit.

2. Franklin Dad

   August 14, 2012

   I’ve seen the same thing with the kids and the infrequent checking.

3. Joe

   September 7, 2012

   The DJ is reporting:
   Caltrain’s streak of increased ridership has hit 24 straight months now and the numbers for July were the highest ever for the month.
   In June, Caltrain broke an all-time ridership record when an average of more than 50,000 riders a day hopped on the local commuter train, the most in its 150-year history.
   The numbers were slightly down in July but still high enough to break a monthly ridership record which has also sent farebox revenue soaring.
   Compared to last year, total ridership in July climbed 12 percent from 1,166,044 riders to 1,305,970 riders.
   The average weekday ridership climbed 10.2 percent in July compared to last year from 44,127 to 48,609, according to a staff report to the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board that was heard at yesterday’s meeting.
   The rest is here: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=1754399&title=Caltrain has best July ever
   There’s probably a couple things at work here: gas prices, a Giants pennant race and Silicon Valley rebounding with more traffic. Not a great time to bring in the disruption of High-cost Rail to mess it all up…….

4. Joe

   September 21, 2012

   There’s lots of talk about this incident in anti-high-speed-rail circles:
   SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — Terrified Caltrain passengers who were legally crossing the tracks were forced to jump out of the way of a Baby Bullet to avoid disaster, leaving the commuter line scrambling for answers after one of the train operators tested positive for drug use.
   No one was hurt in the Aug. 24 incident, which was disclosed to this newspaper for the first time Friday. Caltrain says the “very serious” near-accident was the first of its kind in the modern history of the popular commuter line and has led to major safety changes and left two engineers on leave.

5. Joe

   October 2, 2012

   Four trains have been brought back and two new ones added to handle the increased ridership
   http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=1755703&title=Caltrain adds trains to meet ridership growth