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Hi all,
See this article about a complete (I would guess expensive) overhaul of
fairgates and pay machines, which could clearly wait for better times;
at the same time that Muni is proposing fare hikes and service cuts.
Outrageous.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/under-the-dome/Construction-begins-…
Construction begins on Muni faregate replacement
By: Will Reisman <http://www.sfexaminer.com/bios/41456417.html>
Examiner Staff Writer
04/09/10 10:45 AM PDT
Muni riders traveling in San Francisco downtown Metro stations will have
to deal with some construction over the next eight months, starting
Monday at the Embarcadero Station.
The Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, is set to
begin an extensive project to replace all of its existing faregates and
swing gates, while installing new ticket vending machines. The first
phase of construction will take place from April 12 to April 16 at the
Montgomery Station.
The faregate replacement project coincides with Muni's push to
transition from its existing fare methods to the new TransLink --- soon
to be called Clipper
<http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/under-the-dome/Timetable-set-up-for…>
--- card, a payment method that will one day be available on all 26 of
the Bay Area's transit agencies.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/under-the-dome/Construction-begins-…
Did any pubic officials give any of us -any- warning about this
whatsoever????
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/04/01/caltrain-faces-deep-cuts-perhaps-ev…
Caltrain faces deep cuts, perhaps even closure
04.01.10 - 3:04 pm | Steven T. Jones
<http://www.sfbg.com/category/author/steven-t-jones> |
(0)
Serious doubt was cast over the future of Caltrain
<http://www.caltrain.com/index.html> today, with this vital commuter
rail link threatened by the same funding cutbacks that are hobbling
other regional transit agencies. The joint-powers agency might be forced
to cut its service in half this summer -- probably by eliminating night
and weekend service -- or perhaps even shutting the system down.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is in a fiscal emergency
and moving ahead with service cuts and small but controversial revenue
enhancements, all approved Tuesday
<http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/03/30/mta-board-votes-to-extend-fiscal-emerg…>
by its Board of Directors, and the nearby San Mateo County Transit
District (SamTrans) and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
(VTA) are in similarly desperate straits.
Those three agencies run Caltrain, and all have had to scale back their
funding commitments in order to preserve bus and light rail services in
their core communities. "We're rapidly approaching a cliff," Caltrain
CEO Mike Scanlon told the Caltrain Board of Directors today, according
to the San Mateo Times
<http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_14802053>. "It's going
to be very, very painful. It's probably going to force people back on
congested freeways."
Caltrain spokesperson Mark Simon told the Guardian that the agency is
fully funded through the current fiscal year that ends June 30, but
after that, "I don't know how long we can survive."
"I don't think I need to tell someone at the San Francisco Bay Guardian
how bad things are at the SFMTA," he said, adding that the situation is
as bad or worse at the other two agencies, and that Caltrain has no
other sources of operating revenue.
"That issue has come to a head and it's come to a head because the state
has zeroed out how much money it gives to public transit," Simon told
us. "What's really heartbreaking is that this is a time when we should
be adding service."
Indeed, Caltrain has been moving ahead with plans to electrify its
track, which would increase train speed and therefore system capacity
while polluting less. But while it seeks federal grants for that capital
project, the operating funds that have traditionally come from the state
via SFMTA, VTA, and SamTrans have dried up (state and federal
transportation funds are strictly divided between capital and operating
funds).
Unlike Caltrain, SFMTA and many other transit agencies have the
authority to put general tax measures on the ballot to fund transit
services, but so far in San Francisco, neither Mayor Gavin Newsom nor
the seven SFMTA board members he appointed have shown any leadership is
doing so.
###
