Great! Ridership is way up, so let's raise fares and force some riders back onto El Camino and 101!

that's right, be negative about everything. Cost of fuel, maintenance, etc. Think. Has the area costs change. The answer is........yes.

Fuel up?

SteveC: "Think."

Seriously, it's an elasticity curve: the benefits we all get from many taking mass transit vs fewer taking mass transit.

So we raise prices and fewer will use the service, hence a more crowded ECR and 101.

fare hike:

I seriously doubt 50 cents a ride is going to drive people back into their cars if they're already taking Caltrain.

How was the CalTrain rider income survey conducted? Not all riders are workers. Isn't 2 increases in 16 months unseemly when fuel costs in the same time have diminished? Too bad the parking lots aren't limited to riders only as many slots are used by others as a cheap alternative to overtime parking tickets in downtowns. Palo Alto is the only station where I can always find parking, at the southern end behind the hotels. Often, Menlo has no available parking spots & despite the urgings of the cycle crowd, not all of us live close enough or are well enough to bike to CalTrain.

The county and state puts too much money into highways and too little into public transit. Those merging lanes that were recently added to Hwy 101 cost $100,000,000 and seem to have little effect on overall traffic flow. We should invest more public money into improving frequency and capacity of public transit. These minor fare increases may cover maintenance cost increases, but are not significant enough to improve service.

If the increased budget (what you get with increased fares) goes to RoW improvements, maintenance, upkeep, and perhaps more useful evening / weekend service, I am all for it.

If it goes towards more consultants, studies, proclamations, campaigns, and non-core functions like the holiday train (how much equipment / people / time are you tying up there for what's basically a publicity stunt?), then perhaps we need a change of management before a fare increase.

It also goes to the $500K worth of compensation to Caltrain's new boss......

Back to the Samtrans system I go...it has its problems, but it is still affordable and not too far of a walk for an old fart like me. I'd be curious to see how much of the fare increase will go toward HSR though.

Ok, so ridership (and revenue) is at an all time high = time to raise prices. So how about when ridership falls (and revenue with it), will that equal "time to lower prices"

Just wondering, because otherwise this is simply a money grab, which most gov. programs seem to pass near the end of the year when people are too tired to care.

sad.

Why don't they just raise parking fees instead?