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A high-level federal “working group” that meets weekly to discuss California’s high-speed rail project has been created in response to growing concerns about the viability of the California project, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo announced Monday in an interview with the Voice’s sister paper, the Palo Alto Weekly.
Eshoo said the working group was created by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood following a Sept. 30 meeting of six Congress members from California and several high-level federal officials. The 90-minute meeting covered growing concerns about the rail project, currently estimated to cost $43 billion, which will link San Francisco to Los Angeles in its initial phase.
Eshoo said the congressmembers expressed concerns about the viability of the California project and leadership of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, based on several authoritative studies that questioned basic cost, design, process and ridership studies of the authority.
Eshoo said her own position is that some federal funds need to be freed up and applied directly to upgrading and electrifying the Caltrain commute service, struggling to fill a $2.3 million budget gap. Federal funding is from the Federal Railroad Administration under the Department of Transportation.
She said the federal officials at the meeting include Roy Kienitz, undersecretary for policy at the Department of Transportation, who was raised in the Palo Alto/Mountain View/Sunnyvale area.
Members of Congress at the meeting included Mike Honda, Jackie Speier, George Miller, John Garamendi, Mike Thompson and Eshoo.
Electrification alone, won’t save Caltrain, Caltrain needs to cleanup their own house first.
Caltrain employees total compensation jumped 34 percent over the last 3 years. Compensation is eating up the budget, there is no money left for rail service!
Electrification won’t change that
Hood and our local represenatives in Washington are getting invloved? Well that should slow the high speed train down.
Antonio,
That’s interesting. I’ve been wondering where I could get more information about Caltrain’s budget. Where did you get the 34% figure?
Do you know if Caltrain employees are unionized?
— ML
Mike,
As far as I understand, Caltrain contracts with Amtrak to operate the trains while SamTrans manages the service. Here’s the 2011 budget:
http://www.caltrain.com/Assets/_Finance/Fiscal+Year+Operating+Budget/PCJPB+2011+Adopted+Budget.pdf
Caltrain should certainly try to get a better deal for their operating contract. I believe it is up for review/renewal soon.
However, the real problem is a the lack of a dedicated operating fund. Unlike BART or VTA, Caltrain is dependent on contributions from MUNI, VTA, and SamTrans to operate. I believe these agencies can axe their funding at any time. This is what SamTrans is planning on doing next year and Caltrain will face a $30 million operating deficit. As you may remember, the 4 trains that are being cut and the fare increase only raises $1.2 million.
Caltrain needs a dedicated source of funding.
Caltrain employee pay rises even during rocky time
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_16262524
“Caltrain needs a dedicated source of funding”
Or not …
Whatever money is being thrown at Caltrain in its current shape or form will be wasted on employee entitlements/benefits/guaranteed retirement/automatic pay raises/lifetime employment etc
Let Caltrain go bankrupt for the benefit of the people using the train and the tax payers fitting the bill
Then start from scratch with a completely different set of individuals
Pay employee market rate, actively manage employee performance, accept accountability for end results which is the satisfaction of the folks riding the train, the quality of the service offered and the safety of the people making their way across the tracks.
Antonio, that article was kinda depressing. Here, I thought maybe they were spending the money on diesel fuel, mechanics, janitorial services, train drivers — you know, actually operating a railroad. Sigh.
Antonio,
Letting Caltrain die for the sake of restructuring a small administration is naive. Even if that scheme was enacted, we’d still be short tens of millions of dollars for operations because SamTrans and other agencies do not want to fund the railroad anymore. The article cited is talking about a 3 million dollars in raises. Caltrain is facing a $30 million deficit next year because it’s being abandoned by SamTrans. Cleaning the administrative house might help a little, but the scale of the funding issue occludes the criticisms of public employee salaries. Dedicated funding is needed to maintain and increase the number of trains.
Mike,
The administrative costs are nothing compared to the operations contract with Amtrak. According to the budget linked in my previous post they spend $50 million for train operators and conductors. The archaic system of two conductors adds to the cost and should be revised (among other things) when Caltrain renegotiates the labor agreement later this year.
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