Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

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Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Locale San Jose, California
Transit type Bus and Light Rail
Began operation 1973
System length 42.2 mi (light rail)
No. of lines 82 bus, 3 light rail
No. of stations 62
Daily ridership 99,966 bus, 26,137 light rail (2006)
Operator Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Founding of Santa Clara County Transit District

In 1969, Santa Clara County had three private bus companies, all of which were in serious financial trouble: Peninsula Transit, San Jose City Lines, and Peerless Stages.[1] The California Legislature passed a Santa Clara County Transit District Act in 1969.[2] However, the Act did not supply any funding for the new district, and county voters were reluctant to tax themselves to fund a public bus system. The formation of the Santa Clara County Transit District was rejected in 1969 and 1970 before it was finally approved by county voters on June 6, 1972.[3] The SCCTD took over the operations of the three old bus companies on January 1, 1973.[4]

On September 26, 1974, the county Board of Supervisors dissolved the Public Works Department.[5] Non-transit operations went into a new General Services Agency, while transit operations were placed into a new Santa Clara County Transportation Agency.[6]

The biggest problem facing SCCTD in its early years was to replace the aging bus fleet it inherited from its predecessors. At first the district bought propane-fueled Twin Coaches from Gillig, but switched to an all-diesel fleet when six buses went up in flames between December 1977 and April 1978.[7] At the time, critics referred to the buses as "rolling propane bombs."[8]

[edit] Formation of VTA

On January 1, 1995, the SCCTA merged with the county Congestion Management Agency to become the SCVTA. For convenience, the acronym was later shortened to VTA.

In 1996, voters approved a half cent general county sales tax, Measure B, and a companion list of transportation projects recommended to be funded with Measure B, called (1996) Measure A. The two measures were designed to circumvent the rule in the California State Constitution that requires a two-thirds supermajority to pass any special purpose sales tax, but only a majority vote to pass a general sales tax. The measure was challenged, but in 1998, the California Supreme Court ruled that the two measure system was valid. [1] The tax was to be collected for ten years.

[edit] 2000 Measure A sales tax

In 2000, voters approved a 30 year extension of the 1996 sales tax to fund an extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit to Santa Clara, which was strongly advocated by San Jose mayor Ron Gonzales. 2000 Measure A also includes funding for light rail extensions, bus service expansion, and a people mover to San Jose International Airport. The measure was placed on the ballot by the VTA and does not include funding specifically for highway projects. It was criticized by residents in the western and southern portions of the county, who stated that not enough benefit was being provided to those areas. Nevertheless, due to growing congestion during the dot-com boom, the measure passed with 70% of the vote. Revenues from the sales tax would not begin being collected until April 2006.

After 2000, due to the dot-com bust, existing revenue sources declined and VTA was forced to cut service and increase fares. VTA embarked on a series of fare hikes starting in 1998 and culminating in 2005. [2] Base fares have increased 59%, monthly passes by 86%, and day passes by 139% over that time. VTA's farebox recovery is approximately 12%, which is far below the national average. Attempts to increase VTA's low farebox recovery has resulted in fare increases and service cuts, which continue to reduce ridership and paradoxically do not result in major improvement in farebox recovery. Thus, it is often said that VTA is in a "death spiral" of high fares and poor service. [3] and VTA has contemplated a 21% service reduction in 2003 [4] to address its budget problems[5].

In the process of obtaining the federal funding necessary to build the BART extension, VTA received a blow when the Federal Transit Administration issued a "Not Recommended" rating in January 2004. [6] The FTA was concerned about the ability for VTA to raise matching funds for construction, and of its ability to operate BART and other bus services at the same time. Nevertheless, VTA continued to design BART and prepare the required environmental documents under the assumption that a new revenue source would be found when the design is completed.

In 2006, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors placed a 1/2 cent general sales tax increase for unspecified transportation projects along with other county services. It was advocated by supporters of the BART extension and labor groups, to avoid the likelihood of having two separate sales tax measures competing for voter support. [7] The tax increase would have meant that Santa Clara County would have the highest sales tax in the state. Recent California Supreme Court decisions had prevented the county from using the same technique as in 1996, so the transportation projects were not listed. However, the measure was portrayed in the public as the last means of saving the BART extension. On June 6, 2006, voters defeated the measure by a margin of 58% to 42%. [8]

Currently, VTA's plans still include the BART extension, but the agency is still short $3 billion for its overall transportation plan. [9] In December 2006, the VTA board allocated $185 million to continue engineering work and environmental clearance on the extension, with a proposal to bring a tax increase to operate the BART extension in 2008. [10]

[edit] Governance

The Santa Clara VTA special district is governed by a 12-member board of directors comprised of:

  • 2 Santa Clara County supervisors
  • 5 City of San Jose council members
  • 5 council members selected from the other 14 cities in the county

In June 2004, the Santa Clara County Grand Jury criticized the governance strucutre by calling it "too large, too political, too dependent on staff, too inexperienced in some cases, and too removed from the financial and operational performance of VTA." Since VTA board members are required to be elected officials, they must juggle their other duties in addition to VTA. The Grand Jury recommended that the VTA board be shrunk to 5 to 7 members, with members either appointed solely for transportation issues or directly elected by the voters. [11]

VTA's current General Manager is Michael Burns, previously the General Manager of San Francisco Muni.

[edit] Congestion management

VTA also serves as the Congestion Management Agency for Santa Clara County. In this role VTA makes decisions on what local projects can utilize federal and state funding, and manage sales tax revenue that is specified for VTA usages, such as 1987 Measure A and 2000 Measure A sales tax measures.

[edit] Transit services

VTA operates three light rail lines, a number of bus lines, and paratransit service. VTA is a member agency of Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board that manages Caltrain communter rail, providing one-third of annual operating funds and all the funding for specific improvement projects within Santa Clara County. VTA is also a member agency of Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority that manages Capitol Corridor intercity rail service.

[edit] Light rail

A schematic map of the VTA LRT system
A schematic map of the VTA LRT system

The VTA light rail system consists of 42.2 miles of track, currently consisting of two main lines and a spur line. There are currently 62 light rail stations in operation on the three lines. The light rail system was opened in 1987 and has gradually expanded since then. [9]

[edit] Alum Rock — Santa Teresa

Designated as 901, this line runs from the Alum Rock station in East San Jose (or Alum Rock) to Santa Teresa station in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of San Jose, via Milpitas and downtown San Jose. There are 36 stops on this line. In South San Jose, the line operates in the median of California State Route 87 and 85. A proposed future development is an extension past Alum Rock along Capitol Ave. and Capitol Expressway to the Eastridge Transit Center, which would effectively duplicate (and possibly replace) the current service by the 522 bus line along this corridor.

[edit] Mountain View — Winchester

Designated as 902, this line runs from Downtown Mountain View station in Mountain View through Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, North San Jose along Tasman Drive, North First Street, Downtown San Jose, and the Southwest Expressway on its way to its terminus at the Winchester station in western Campbell. It has 32 stops, 14 of which are shared with the Alum Rock-Santa Teresa Line.

[edit] Almaden Shuttle

Designated as 900, this is a 3-stop spur from the Ohlone/Chyoweth station to Almaden station at the Almaden Expressway in the Almaden Valley. The Ohlone/Chynoweth station provides connection to the Alum Rock-Santa Teresa Line, and the Almaden station connects to VTA bus service. It receives little traffic, even though there is an intermediate stop at the Westfield Oakridge mall.

[edit] Light rail vehicles

A Kinki Sharyo Low Floor Light Rail Vehicle in Mountain View - used by VTA since 2002
A Kinki Sharyo Low Floor Light Rail Vehicle in Mountain View - used by VTA since 2002
Urban Transit Development Corporation high-floor light rail vehicle - used by VTA between 1987-2003.
Urban Transit Development Corporation high-floor light rail vehicle - used by VTA between 1987-2003.

From 1987 until September 2003, the system was served by a fleet of high-floor light rail vehicles built by Urban Transportation Development Corporation. In 2002, VTA introduced new low floor light rail vehicles by Kinki Sharyo into the fleet. The low floor vehicles initially operated only on the Tasman West line (Downtown Mountain View — I-880/Milpitas)because the vehicles' floor height matched the platform height only at that line's stations and was only able to provide level-boarding there. In 2003, after VTA reconstructed platforms along North First Street from the Japantown/Ayer stop northward (with wooden ramps provided for the leading car's front door at all other stations), VTA replaced the entire fleet with low floor light rail vehicles.

[edit] Major light rail connections

[edit] Bus routes

VTA Line 23 bus arriving at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills
VTA Line 23 bus arriving at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills

VTA operates 82 regularly operating bus routes as of April 2006. There are many commuter-based services and connections to VTA light rail service and Caltrain stations. VTA also provides express bus service linking BART in Fremont.

VTA's longest and most-used bus route is the 22, which connects Eastridge Shopping Center in East San Jose with the Caltrain stations in Palo Alto and Menlo Park via El Camino Real. These locations serve as transfer points for SamTrans buses from San Mateo County. Line 22 is the only line with 24-hour, 7 days-per-week service, including night bus service as part of the regional All-Nighter Network. One side effect of Line 22's 24-hour schedule is that it doubles as a moving homeless shelter.[10][11] Line 22's fleet of coaches primarily consists of articulated low floor New Flyer buses. Line 22, and Rapid Line 522 are currently the only routes that utilize the low-floor articulated New Flyer models.

On July 5, 2005, VTA implemented its first rapid bus line along the VTA's busiest corridor. Modeled after the Metro Rapid service in Los Angeles, rapid bus Line 522 follows most of the Line 22 route, and features limited stops, headway based schedules, low floor fleet, and signal priority along El Camino Real. The VTA is currently studying the feasibility of implementing similar Bus Rapid Transit service along San Carlos/Stevens Creek Blvd., which would supplement Line 23 between San Jose and Cupertino, and along Monterey Highway, which would supplement Line 68 between San Jose and Gilroy.

Altogether, VTA's bus lines serve San Jose, Milpitas, Saratoga, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Alviso, Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy, Campbell, Los Gatos, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale within Santa Clara County, with scheduled runs of Line 22 serving Menlo Park in San Mateo County; in addition, there is trans-county express service to and from Fremont, Union City, Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz, and Soquel and service to and from 49ers football games in San Francisco.

[edit] Vintage Trolley Service

VTA operates a vintage trolley service seasonally. It operates between Civic Center and Children's Discovery Center stations.

[edit] Paratransit

Paratransit service is door-to-door shuttle service available to disabled people that meet the requirements of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Outreach, a non-profit agency, is the contract paratransit broker for VTA.

[edit] Highway Improvement

Besides providing transit services to residents of Santa Clara County, VTA also manages countywide highway projects that uses county sales tax revenues, in conjunction with Caltrans. In this role, VTA was responsible for several highway projects such as widening portions of US 101 between San Jose and Morgan Hill, and Interstate 880 within Santa Clara County. VTA will also be the leading agency in CA 152/CA 156 interchange and future widening projects.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Currently operating light rail and streetcar systems in the United States
MBTA Green and Ashmont-Mattapan Lines | Hudson-Bergen Light Rail | Newark Light Rail | River Line | Buffalo Metro Rail | SEPTA Subway-Surface, Suburban and Girard Avenue Trolley Lines | Norristown High Speed Line | Pittsburgh Light Rail | Baltimore Light Rail | Hiawatha Line | New Orleans Streetcar System | Kenosha Transit | RTA Rapid Transit Blue and Green Lines | TECO | LYNX (to begin 11/26/07) | Charlotte Trolley | MATA Main Street Trolley | River Rail Streetcar | DART | M-Line | METRORail | Galveston Island Trolley | St. Louis Metrolink | Muni Metro, Cable Car and F Market Lines | VTA | RT | LACMTA Blue, Green and Gold Lines | San Diego Trolley | MAX | Portland Streetcar | Portland Vintage Trolley | TRAX | Old Pueblo Trolley | TheRide | Platte Valley Trolley | Fort Collins Municipal Railway | Tacoma Link

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charles S. McCaleb, Rails, Roads & Runways: The 20-Year Saga of Santa Clara County's Transportation Agency, (San Jose: Santa Clara County Transportation Agency, 1994), 12.
  2. ^ McCaleb, 12.
  3. ^ McCaleb, 12.
  4. ^ McCaleb, 12.
  5. ^ McCaleb, 16.
  6. ^ McCaleb, 16.
  7. ^ McCaleb, 26.
  8. ^ McCaleb, 26.
  9. ^ Light Rail Services. Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority. Retrieved on April 10, 2006.
  10. ^ Jane Lii, "Refuge On The Road: Homeless Find Nighttime Haven — The No. 22 Bus From Menlo Park To San Jose," San Jose Mercury News, 9 January 2000, 1A.
  11. ^ Cathy Newman, "Silicon Valley: Inside the Dream Incubator," National Geographic 200, no. 6 (December 2001): 52-76.

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