SANTA CLARA VTA RIDERS UNION P. O. Box 390069 Mountain View, CA 94039-0069 http://www.vtaridersunion.org/ NEWS RELEASE TO: Editor, News Assignment Desk, Transportation Reporter * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * Press Contact: Eugene Bradley 24 hr. cell/pager (408)888-2208 email:eegenebradley@yahoo.com SOUTH BAY TRANSIT RIDER GROUP OPPOSES LATEST ROUND OF VTA SERVICE CUTS Says Proposed Service Cuts Further Punish Transit Riders, Cause More Gridlock, Increase Dependence on Foreign Oil SUNNYVALE, CA (February 3, 2003) – The Santa Clara VTA Riders Union (SCVTARU - http://www.vtaridersunion.org/) today announces its opposition to the proposed service cuts the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) wants to make at its February 6 Board meeting. SCVTARU instead asks the VTA to end its policy of punishing the transit rider for fiscal sins not of their own making, and take bold, immediate steps to end the fiscal crisis. Examples of this include pay cuts and layoffs of high-level management and consultants at the VTA's River Oaks headquarters. The VTA Board meeting where the service cuts issue will be voted on will be held at the County Government Center at 70 W. Hedding Street in San Jose at 6:00pm. The County Government Center is near Civic Center light rail station, and near VTA bus lines 36, 62, 66, and 180. SCVTARU strongly urges every concerned citizen in Santa Clara County to attend and speak out at this important Board meeting. By proposing further transit service reductions, VTA management is once again punishing those in the county who depend on mass transit for mobility, for sins not of their own making. Specifically, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and our young people who cannot afford to drive, or who cannot drive, an automobile are being robbed of their mobility and independence with the proposed service cuts. Those who use transit to escape gridlock and road rage are also being punished by VTA management again for using mass transit instead of an automobile. While VTA has preserved some bus service such as line 88 on Saturdays in Palo Alto and 24-hour bus service along El Camino Real on line 22, VTA's termination of light rail service from 1:30am to 4:30am between North San Jose and South San Jose threatens to place more intoxicated drivers on our streets. Worse, the reduction of weekday peak service on bus lines such as the 64 from 4 buses per hour to two buses per hour only serve to force transit riders back to their cars, thus creating more traffic gridlock in downtown San Jose. This continues a cycle where VTA loses more revenue and ridership, which is later used as justification to eliminate service more. Should the VTA approve this shortsighted proposal, the service cuts take effect this April. As a county with over 1 million automobiles - mostly single- occupancy vehicles - daily, Santa Clara County is heavily dependent on foreign oil - particularly oil from the Middle East. With war in the Middle East likely, SCVTARU is concerned that VTA will be unprepared to supply the need for transit if oil supplies from the Middle East are ever cut off from the United States due to war, should it continue to reduce transit service. Such a scenario would expose to the world Silicon Valley's heavy dependence on foreign oil - as well as a useless mass transit system that can break that dependence on foreign oil. The VTA says they will be bankrupt on June 30, 2003 due to the ongoing economic recession - hence justification to reduce Santa Clara County's transit service. However, their ad-hoc Committee on Financial Stability, from our observations and testimony at their meetings, continues to drag its feet on obtaining viable solutions to VTA's fiscal crisis. In fact, they just spent $150,000 in VTA general funds to hire three (3) consultants to obtain suggestions to financial stability. SCVTARU has been proposing many of these same solutions - for no cost - to VTA management since last April, when signs of the crisis first developed. In fact, we presented a revised proposal at last week's Committee meeting - a proposal that can be viewed on our web site, www.vtaridersunion.org. Concerned citizens who cannot attend and speak out at this meeting are urged to contact the VTA Board of Directors at (408)321-5680 and express to the VTA Board their opposition to the proposed service cuts. Further ways to speak out on the VTA's proposed service cuts are available on our web site, www.vtaridersunion.org. ### About the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union -------------------------------------- Founded in October 2000 by Eugene Bradley, the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union is a grassroots-based organization dedicated to ensuring that elected officials improve and implement cost- effective, frequent, and reliable mass transit in Santa Clara County. You can find more information on the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union at http://www.vtaridersunion.org/. We are based in Sunnyvale, CA. Our organization has no affiliation with, nor is endorsed by, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in any way whatsoever.