EDITOR: The Santa Clara VTA Riders Union (SCVTARU –
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/) is opposed to the latest round of
service cuts proposed by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation
Authority (VTA). The VTA’s latest proposal
– a 21 percent decrease in the county’s bus and light rail
services – will feature public meetings throughout Santa Clara
County in June.
EDITOR:
The Santa Clara VTA Riders Union (SCVTARU – http://www.vtaridersunion.org/) is opposed to the latest round of service cuts proposed by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The VTA’s latest proposal – a 21 percent decrease in the county’s bus and light rail services – will feature public meetings throughout Santa Clara County in June. If approved by the VTA’s Board of Directors at their Aug. 5 meeting, the service cuts would take effect on Oct. 13, 2003.
VTA claims that the service reductions are necessary to help offset a $50 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. To this day, VTA’s staff and management have failed to provide evidence that their previous fare hikes and service cuts have had any effect on their short-term and long term deficit – a deficit that is currently at $6 billion over the next 20 years.
Worse, SCVTARU has noticed that VTA continues to plan for the San Jose BART extension as well as for extension of light rail into Campbell and East San Jose – while simultaneously reducing the county’s other transit services. SCVTARU questions VTA’s priorities in lieu of its budget crisis, and urges that the overall health of its bus service – the backbone of any transit system – must be made a top priority.
VTA also claims that the proposed service cuts, if approved Aug. 5, would revert service back to levels last seen in 1981. One SCVTARU contributor researched the proposed service cuts – located on the VTA’s web site at www.vta.org – and noted that the service levels VTA proposes to revert to were last seen in 1979. VTA has forgotten its history where voters in 1996 and 2000 approved measures for more bus and light rail service – not to have those service levels revert to 1979.
From South San Jose down to Morgan Hill Gilroy, VTA’s proposed service cuts would continue to disenfranchise residents in these rural areas who do not have access to an automobile. A proposal to eliminate Saturday service on bus line 16 in Morgan Hill would leave residents at the Hacienda Valley and Madrone Mobile Estates who cannot access an automobile with no means to access major shopping nor health care via connections to other bus lines at Main and Hale.
When combined with a proposal for reducing paratransit service that will be voted on at the June 5 VTA Board meeting, residents in South Valley – many of whom whom live more than a mile from the nearest bus stop – will be totally cut off from shopping, health care, education and employment unless they have an automobile.
With these proposals, combined with the opening of new lanes on Highway 101, SCVTARU feels the VTA is telling South Valley residents, “Want to get around? Make sure you have a car.”
SCVTARU has learned that Gilroy Mayor Tom Springer – who sits on the VTA’s Board of Directors – is fighting to see that the paratransit service reductions do not adversely affect the South Valley.
Among other proposed service reductions VTA wants to make this time is the elimination of 24-hour service on bus line 22 between Menlo Park, Palo Alto and East San Jose. In addition, VTA wants to eliminate limited stop line 300 between Palo Alto and East San Jose. Line 22 – at over 25,000 riders per day – is the most heavily traveled bus corridor in the South Bay.
Many of these riders are low-to-middle income workers who work the higher-paying graveyard shifts along El Camino Real. By ending 24-hour service, these workers would be forced to find other means of getting to their jobs, or they must quit their graveyard-shift jobs altogether.
Some SCVTARU members are concerned that hitchhiking will become common along El Camino Real at night when no buses are running – placing a danger for automobile drivers along El Camino Real. By ending service on line 300, it will now take from 60 to 90 minutes for a bus rider to travel from the Palo Alto area to San Jose – a trip that can be made in a fraction of the time in an automobile. There already is an increase in automobile traffic in that area – due largely to the bus service cuts made over the last two years.
VTA’s latest proposed service cuts will force many local college students into automobiles for them to get to classes on time. Among the proposed service cuts affecting local colleges are the elimination of bus line 52 from the Mountain View Caltrain Station to Foothill College, and the elimination of bus line 58 from West Valley College to North San Jose/Alviso.
Elimination of bus service to and from these colleges means that students will be forced to choose between paying for tuition or paying for an automobile to get them to and from college daily. Those who can afford the privilege will resort to driving an automobile in gridlock – further hurting the South Bay’s environment and quality of life. Students with no other means to reach local colleges except by transit, may be forced to withdraw – thus contributing to a cycle that ultimately harms the local economy in terms of having a citizen unprepared to participate in the economy via employment.
We also questions the timing of the meetings for this round of proposed service cuts. As this round of service cuts affects many colleges and universities in the South Bay, why will the meetings be held in June – a time when many college students are on summer vacation. Holding the meetings in June for service cuts that could take effect in October – in the middle of the fall semester – is an blatant attempt by VTA to put a knife in the back to South Bay college students who use mass transit to beat traffic gridlock.
A protest against the proposed service cuts as well as the VTA’s proposed fare hike will take place on June 5 at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Santa Clara County Government Offices at 70 W. Hedding St. in San Jose. The protest is accessible from VTA bus lines 36, 62, 66, 180, and from Civic Center light rail station.
We encourage all transit riders and concerned taxpayers in the South Bay to attend and speak out at the rally, and at the VTA Board meeting that follows. Those who cannot attend the rally are strongly encouraged to contact the VTA Board member(s) for their community. They can do so through our web site, www.vtaridersunion.org
Eugene Bradley, founder,
Santa Clara VTA Riders Union
