Name: Caltrain might have to shut down after supervisors scuttle sales tax measure
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Caltrain might have to shut down after supervisors scuttle sales tax measure

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCaltrain, faced with financial ruin as it runs a near-empty commuter rail line along the Peninsula, may have to shut down altogether.Officials made the grim prediction Tuesday after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declined to introduce a /cent for the November ballot — a vital lifeline that would have generated $100 million a year. It needed approval from four transit boards and Boards of Supervisors in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. By opting not to support the measure, the San Francisco supervisors effectively scuttled it.Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Shamann Walton had previously saying they want to separate the rail line , which manages and operates the rail system for a three-county Joint Powers Board. They say the two other counties served by Caltrain, San Francisco and Santa Clara, should have more control of its leadership and operations.“It’s taxation without representation,” Peskin said Tuesday, adding that he disagrees with regressive sales taxes. He and Walton committed to “find a policy or legislative solution by next year,” possibly in the form of a state bill.But politicians on the Peninsula saw an instance of local control run amok.“It’s turned into something of a turf war, and I think that’s totally unnecessary,” said Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, a San Mateo Democrat. He stressed Caltrain’s importance to the economic recovery and said those trying to stymie the rail had defied “the spirit of regionalism.”San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine, who also chairs Caltrain’s Board of Directors, said San Francisco counterparts had left the agency . Absent other revenue sources, Caltrain could ask for more money from its strained partner agencies. More likely, “We may have little or no rail service on the Peninsula by the end of the year when federal (Cares Act) funding is exhausted.”The political tussling comes just as Caltrain moves forward with its $2 billion electrification and a it announced last year. Executive staff at Caltrain put together a long-range “service vision” last year, which aimed to triple the number of riders on the rail system — from 60,000 a day to 180,000 — while swapping the diesel-belching locomotives for 10-car electric trains that would arrive at stations every 7½ minutes.That $25 billion vision would serve a booming population of commuters, lured by housing and tech jobs along Highway 101.Transit in TroubleUpdated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.Yet the COVID-19 pandemic upended the rail system’s success, causing 95% of its riders to peel away. Unless it can restore roughly 30% of riders by the end of the year, its board will have to consider “serious cuts in service,” spokesman Seamus Murphy said.Pine said the system will still have full electric infrastructure even if its trains are suspended.Polling suggested the sales tax had a good chance of passing, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, the cratering economy, and the steep threshold of two-thirds of voters in three counties. People tend to turn out for presidential elections, Pine said, and many favor transit.It also would have provided an upside for San Francisco, which now pays $15.6 million a year from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s budget for Caltrain’s operations and capital costs. If the measure had passed, all of Caltrain’s partner agencies would be relieved of their funding burdens.Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCaltrain, faced with financial ruin as it runs a near-empty commuter rail line along the Peninsula, may have to shut down altogether.Officials made the grim prediction Tuesday after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declined to introduce a /cent for the November ballot — a vital lifeline that would have generated $100 million a year. It needed approval from four transit boards and Boards of Supervisors in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. By opting not to support the measure, the San Francisco supervisors...

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Rachel Swan covers transportation for The Chronicle. She joined the paper in 2015 and has also reported on politics in Oakland and San Francisco.  Previously, Rachel held staff positions at the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, where she covered technology, law and the arts. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/author/rachel-swan/

Rachel Swan

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Caltrain might have to shut down after supervisors scuttle sales tax measure

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