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 (in alphabetical order):	

Eugene Bradley	24 hr. cell/pager (408)888-2208 
email: eegenebradley@yahoo.com

TRANSIT WATCHDOGS BEGIN PRESS FOR REFORM

VTA Reform Campaign Kicks Off Tomorrow Night in San Jose

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (August 11, 2004) . The Santa Clara VTA 
Riders Union (SCVTARU . http://www.vtaridersunion.org/), 
a transit advocacy and watchdog group in Santa Clara 
County, is announcing the start of its campaign to 
immediately reform the Santa Clara Valley Transportation 
Authority (VTA) Board of Directors.

Since its inception in October 2000, SCVTARU has spoken 
that the VTA is out of touch with Santa Clara County's 
taxpayers in terms of running the county's public transit 
system and must be made fully accountable to taxpayers. 
VTA's fare hikes and service cuts over the last three 
years are one of the main reasons why only 4% of the 
County's commuters use public transit.  Worse, VTA's 
"easy way out" strategy of three fare hikes in three 
years (including the latest fare hike the VTA approved 
at their June board meeting), combined with four rounds 
of service cuts in that same time frame, account for 
90,000 of 100,000 transit riders lost since April 2001.  
This was validated and echoed by the Santa Clara County 
Civil Grand Jury two months ago, when their report on 
the VTA mentioned that the VTA's Board of Directors be 
disbanded for being "too political."

Our campaign for VTA reform officially kicks off at our 
next meeting tomorrow evening in San Jose.  Concerned 
citizens are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting 
and have their own ideas for VTA reform.  Details on the 
kickoff meeting follow:

WHAT: SCVTARU Bimonthly Meeting . VTA Reform NOW!
WHERE: United Way of Silicon Valley, 1920 The Alameda, 
San Jose (room 103 . enter via the rear entrance.  
Accessible via VTA Line 22.  Parking is available in the 
rear of the building.)
WHEN: August 12, 2004, at 7:00pm

Tentatively, our proposal to reform VTA includes the 
following:

* Replacing the current, political VTA Board of Directors 
with a 5-member body directly elected by voters
* Placing BART to San Jose on hold - enabling other critical 
transit projects to be built and until VTA comes clean 
with how much the extension will truly cost
* Rescinding VTA's approved fare hike from June
* A joint state and federal investigation into VTA's finances 
and management - including a full audit of VTA's 2004-2005 
Fiscal Year Budget

Input from the public at this meeting and via our web site 
(www.vtaridersunion.org) will be strongly encouraged to 
generate more ideas for VTA reform.  

SCVTARU looks forward to strong public turnout and interest 
at this meeting.  "It is common sense that voters who tax 
themselves for transit choose who spends their money," said 
SCVTARU Founder Eugene Bradley.

###

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.  Our web site is at www.vtaridersunion.org.  
We are based in Sunnyvale, CA.  Our organization has 
absolutely no affiliation with, nor is endorsed by, the 
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in any way 
whatsoever.

Note to Editors and News Desks:  More information on SCVTARU 
can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/whoarewe/who.html
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/PR