Public hearing on Caltrain's proposed fare hike

I thought we were being told there was no inflation, and that in fact fuel prices were falling?

If there are more people riding Caltrains, adding to revenue,..why a fare increase?

If they raise the fare, will I then have a seat, so I don't have to stand up in the aisle?

Caltrain parking lots are heavily subsidized. They should increase the parking prices to market rates and leave the train fares alone.

Make parking and fares FREE.

Get the dirtiest cars off the road. Make traffic move better, increasing the Bay's productivity. Allow low-income workers in our service industries a chance to make ends meet, since we pay them so little they cannot possibly afford to live in the area they work.

Tax the tech buses. We can afford that part.

The key here is where the additional funds are going.

Caltrain has been shorting rolling stock maintenance in their capital budgets for some time, and deferred maintenance leads to many service issues. If a slightly more expensive service will be a better maintained, more reliable service, then I am all for the fare increase. If it will be used to hire yet more managers and consultants, write and distribute proclamations and other such nonsense, then forget it.

Caltrain has long needed a dedicated funding source. It has never had it.

Instead, the 3 relatively stingy member agencies (SF Muni, SamTrans and SCCo. VTA) which comprise the Caltrain Joint Powers Board (JPB) each annually have to agree on a budget for Caltrain. That is, how much service and capital improvements to subsidize/fund. Each agency has lots of other needs and uses for their money, so there is a built-in tendency for them to want to raise the fares instead of increase their collective operating subsidy. What's worse, is that if any one of the member agencies tries to dial back their contribution in any particular budget year (due to competing internal funding priorities), the other two agencies will cut their contribution in kind, presumably in the name of "fairness".

Unlike BART, Caltrain is not a district and so cannot levy taxes (on, say, gas, sales or property) in order to have a reliable/stable, predictable funding source upon which to base any long-term service planning.

Caltrain is a great but under-invested resource which needs a structural overhaul in order to deliver better transit-like (vs. commuter-focused) service levels like BART does. With electrification (already planned) and proper operating funding, Caltrain could easily provide BART-level service to the Peninsula at a fraction of the cost of ripping it up and replacing it with BART.