As part of the Connect Bay Area regional transit ballot measure spending plan, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties negotiated to include funding to improve local transit, over and above the funding needed to prevent severe cuts to Caltrain and BART.
SamTrans and VTA are starting to discuss goals for the funding. The money can only go to support public transportation – but it can be used to repave roads that are used by buses.
Fill out SamTrans survey by April 30
SamTrans has a new survey getting feedback on the local investment plan for $50 million in funding for transit in San Mateo County. SamTrans is asking about some good ideas, including making bus service more efficient, faster and more reliable, to expand service to underserved communities, and to fund SamTrans’ good plan to improve bus stops.
However, the SamTrans survey does not mention making service more frequent – which is very important for riders – and does not talk about improving connections to Caltrain, BART and across the bay. These are good suggestions to add in the open “Comments/Questions” section of the survey.
VTA Board discusses strategies to grow ridership
At a board workshop on February 27, the VTA board talked about goals to improve financial stability by increasing ridership. The Connect Bay Area ballot measure could bring $264 million per year to fund improvements.
Excellent, rider-friendly strategies discussed at the board meeting include major service increases with the Visionary Network to bring service up to par with other metros and other parts of the Bay; transit priority to make buses faster and more reliable, and other improvements to the customer experience.
VTA’s next board workshop, discussing the future of the service to shape the expenditure plan, will be April 17 – please stay tuned for opportunities to share your thoughts.
