Painful cuts on the way

Bus cuts meeting dates:

Campbell
Monday, August 10, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Campbell Community Center, Roosevelt Community Room
1 West Campbell Avenue, Campbell

San Jose
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
County Government Center, Isaac Newton Senter Auditorium
70 West Hedding Street, San Jose

Mountain View
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.
City of Mountain View, Council Chambers
500 Castro Street, Mountain View

San Jose
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.
San Jose Public Library, Almaden Branch
6445 Camden Avenue, San Jose

San Jose
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.
Dr. Roberto Cruz - Alum Rock Branch Public Library
3090 Alum Rock Avenue, San Jose

Milpitas
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Milpitas Public Library, Room A
160 N. Main Street, Milpitas

The following is the quick summary of the proposed service reductions:

Route discontinuation: 34, 43, 76, 101, River Oaks shuttle

Weekend service cut: 11, 13, 42 (Sunday only), 45, 46 (Sunday only), 81 (weekend service operate only between Cupertino Square and Santa Clara Caltrain)

Drop in frequency from 15 to 20 mins:

- Midday: 66, 68, 72, 73, 77

- Weekend: 25 (30 to 40 minutes west of Valley Med), 70

Drop in frequency from 15 to 30 mins: 10 (early morning), 13, 26 (cut midday short trips), 31, 60 (midday)

Drop in frequency from 30 mins to 40-45 mins:

- Midday: 14, 17, 18, 19, 27, 63

- Saturday: 40, 54, 82 (hourly Sunday), 180

- Sunday: 60, 47, 54, 71, 72, 73, 180

Drop in frequency from 30 mins to hourly:

- Midday: 37 (between Capitol and Winchester), 46, 48, 49

- All day: 39

- Saturday: 27, 31, 35

- Sunday: 57

Route change: 47 - combined with line 33 via Calaveras.

Light Rail: Mountain View service would end at 10:30pm. Two night bus trips would replace light rail from Tasman to Fair Oaks serving all LRT stops and run non-stop to Mountain View.

Nearly all bus lines will have some trips deleted and service hours reduced during early mornings and evenings. Line 22 would also have overnight service eliminated. Along with the proposed cut of SamTrans' overnight service, there would no longer be any overnight transit option available along the Caltrain corridor.

These proposed cuts are a strong reminiscent of the bus cuts VTA made in 2002 and 2003. During that time, VTA reduced service on many routes from 15-30 minute headways into odd headways of 20-45 minutes. Only during the COA process when service was added back on some routes by diverting resources from elsewhere in the system. This time, the same service is getting threatened again.

Some of the frequency cuts may look minor, but the odd headways proposed for many routes make transfers difficult. For example, lines 68 and light rail operate on the same headway and passengers have timed transfers at the Santa Teresa Station 4 times an hour. Under this proposal, timed transfer would only be available once an hour midday.

The more important question is whether VTA would restore the service once the economy recovers. After the cuts in 2002 and 2003, VTA did not significantly increase service levels and failed to meet the 2000 Measure A promise to increase bus service over the year 2000 level. Last fall, Michael Burns claimed that Measure B was necessary because bus service could not be decimated to fund the BART project. Right now, bus service is being decimated. If Burns does not agree to restore service to at least January 2008 level as soon as funding becomes available, then he is breaking his promise and therefore should not deserve any federal funds for a rail line to the Flea Market.

Tomorrow, VTA Riders' Union will hold a protest and a press conference ast 6:00pm at the San Jose Diridon Station over the proposed fare hikes and service cuts by not only VTA, but also by Caltrain and other transit agencies. Earlier in the day, Transform will hold an event in Downtown Oakland urging federal lawmakers to provide more assistance to transit agencies for operations.

Finally, the so-call no tax-hike state budget is nothing but a Republican scam to protect the rich and deceive the middle class. Through some budget manuvers to shift money from one pot to another, many local governments would be ending up with a larger budget shortfall, forcing them to cut service and raise taxes and fees beyond what they have already done. Under this settlement, AC Transit would lose an additional $6 million with their local taxes being "borrowed" by the state. AC Transit is already losing $26 million through the cuts in State Transit Assistance alone, which was diverted to cover the general fund shortfall.

East Bay taxpayers have been generous to AC Transit by overwhelmingly approving tax increases to protect bus operations and hold fares stable. At the end, it appears that their generosity have been exploited by Sacramento politicians.

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Update: Click here for details of the bus cut proposal

VTA Board meeting dates onboard vehicles

Onboard VTA vehicles is a schedule of VTA Board meetings for the rest of 2008. VTA has implemented one of the "Sunshine Law" requests from VTA Riders' Union. Two months ago, VTA staff initially resisted the proposal by offering a lame excuse that VTA has used up the 15% allocated spaces for internal promotions. Perhaps VTA has finally figured out that it is not a difficult task to let riders know when and where the VTA Board meets.

VTA Board restructuring vote and more

VTA Board "restructuring"

This Thursday, the VTA Board will vote on three of the four elements of the proposal to tweak the VTA Board. The three elements to be voted include the 1) elimination of rotational representation by smaller cities, 2) reaffirm current policy of a two-year term but encourage cities to reappoint their representative to consecutive terms, 3) VTA Boardmembers should have prior experience on transportation policies (like serving on VTA PAC or CAC, or MTC, etc).

The final element, which would change city groupings by creating a city grouping just for south county, will be deferred until the August meeting.

Can't VTA put meeting notices on buses and light rail?

Two weeks ago, VTA staff claimed that it can't accept any of the "Sunshine Laws" recommendations presented by VTA Riders' Union. As to placing meeting notices on buses and light rail, VTA says:

One method for placing notices on VTA bus and light rail (revenue) vehicles is using car cards. VTA contracts with an outside vendor to place and maintain all internal and external advertising on revenue vehicles. This includes car cards and external bus boards. Under the terms of the contract, VTA is allocated 15% of the eligible advertising space for its own use. VTA uses this space for rider information, public safety and promotional activities. Due to the high volume of rider information and promotional activities, VTA is frequently at or exceeding the 15% usage maximum. Therefore if the Board desires to place additional meeting notices using car cards, VTA would amend its contract with the vendor to open additional space. Any change to advertising space would result in a decrease of annual revenues through the advertising contract.

It appears that VTA uses much more than 15% of the car card spaces on buses and light rail for their own internal notices and promotions rather than paid advertising, which is actually rare.







Is VTA afraid of its riders attending board meetings and addressing directly to the board? Is VTA Board chair Liz Kniss annoyed about hearing from everyday VTA riders?

A 1/4 cent tax increase is not enough

This Friday, VTA will hold a board workshop to discuss a "new" expenditure plan. At the workshop, the VTA staff will also present a financial analysis of the plan the board adopted June 2006. The analysis concludes:

"The evaluation shows that the additional revenue from a ¼-cent sales tax is insufficient to produce a solvent financial plan with the project schedules as adopted by the Board in June 2006."

It really doesn't have to take an outside consultant to know that the 1/4 cent sales tax increase wouldn't work. If the 2006 Measure A were not defeated, VTA would certainly be looking for another sales tax increase sometime in the next few years.

Despite reality, don't expect the VTA Board to do anything different. One of the elements in the proposed policy guidance is:

"Implement the Intent of Measure A

Includes only those projects in the Plan that have been approved by voters in the measure."

The 2000 Measure A was a complete disaster. Any proposed policy based on that Measure A will also be a complete disaster. It is time for VTA to start with a clean slate. Perhaps the VTA board should instead receive a history lesson on how this ill-conceived 2000 Measure A got pushed with false promises and rosy tax revenue projections.

VTA Riders' Union meeting

On the day before the VTA Board workshop, VTA Riders' Union will be holding a meeting at 6pm at Center for Training and Careers (CTC) on 1600 Las Plumas Avenue. One of the topics to be discussed is the lack of public outreach for the uninspired VTP 2035.

South Bay transit round-up

VTA Commitee Update

This Thursday, the Administration and Finance Commitee will decide whether to forward the "Board restructuring" proposal to the VTA Board. The restructuring proposal is merely a reshuffling of membership, and does nothing to address the flawed decision making process and conflict of interests between its role as a transit operator and as a congestion management agency (highway builders).

The Committee will also discuss the "Sunshine Laws" proposal suggested by the VTA Riders' Union. Specifically, the Riders' Union is requesting VTA to post upcoming board meetings inside VTA's vehicles as well as to tape closed sessions of board meetings and then release those to the public when the need for secrecy no longer exists. The VTA staff responds that posting public meetings onboard buses and light rail could violate the contract with its advertising agency. In regards to taping closed sessions, VTA argues against it because it may lead to information being leaked to the public prematurely if tapes are not being handled properly by the VTA staff.

Also on the meeting agenda is the approval of the sublease of the depot building at Palo Alto Caltrain to a cafe operator. The cafe operator will have free rent for the first six months to establish the business. The building has been vacant for the last few years. Part of the motivation to find a business to occupy that building is to make the restrooms there available to the public. Currently the only public restroom in the area is the "French toilet" between the bus transit center and the Red Cross.

Light Rail update


Even though the station has reopened, the work is not complete at Children's Discovery Museum station.


Is toppling trash bins a part of the demolition work at Curtner station?

Although the light rail trains don't stop at the closed stations, they're required to slow down to 15 mph while passing through the station. Signs have been installed to direct operators when to slow down and when to speed up.



The stop for the bus bridge at Ohlone/Chynoweth is on the same side of the station as the southbound platform.