According to this article, Caltrain is considering cutting midday, night, and weekend trains. These proposed cuts have come about as a result of decreased ridership and severe budget cuts at the agencies responsible for funding the Peninsula's rail service.
I admire cities like Boston and Washington DC in which the mass transit system is an integral part of the transportation that is heavily relied upon by nearly all residents. I have always wished that the Bay Area could offer similar services, but this story effectively dashes those hopes. It also makes me wonder: once the proposed high speed rail is built, will it be able to sustain itself? Or will it too fall prey to decreased ridership issues once the novelty wears off?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think that the proposed high speed rail won't be as successful as they hope. Although people like speed ;), ridership ultimately comes down to who needs it and who is willing to pay. There will probably be a burst of curious people the first couple days after it is built but afterward I see the same decreased ridership. ;/ What to do...
There are a couple of reasons for caltrain's low ridership I think.
1. Caltrain competes with bart. Most people only take caltrain to get into the city. However, caltrain has one or two stops in the city where bart has like 5 or 6. Most people find it inconvenient to take caltrain into the city because of its few stops.
2. Besides San Fransisco, the bay area is suburbia. Cars are predominate in the suburbs.
Just because we are going to lose caltrain during part of the week does not mean there will be no public transportation. Bart will still be available and will still be the superior service in my opinion.
I agree that Bart is a great service, but it just doesn't have enough stops closer to home. The past two summers, I've used caltrain to get to and from the organization I volunteer with in Menlo Park; those trains wouldn't be continued if caltrain decided to make it's cuts. I don't know... Maybe it's just me, since I rarely if ever use Bart, but caltrain seems more convenient (plus, you have to use caltrain to get to the Milbrae Bart station)
Post a Comment