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 Contacts (in alphabetical order): Eugene Bradley 24 hr. cell/pager (408)888-2208 Margaret Okuzumi (408)732-8712 SCVTARU: PROPOSED VTA FARE HIKE RISK DRIVING VALLEY TRANSIT RIDERSHIP TO ZERO VTA Urged To Control Spending To Remain Solvent SUNNYVALE, CA (January 29, 2004) – The Santa Clara VTA Riders Union (SCVTARU – http://www.vtaridersunion.org/), a transit advocacy and watchdog group for Silicon Valley, today announces its opposition to the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and its proposal to increase mass transit fares this summer (http://www.vta.org/inside/boards/packets/2004/01_jan/013004/6.html). The VTA will discuss the proposal at a workshop tomorrow (Friday, January 30) at 8:30am at the Mediterranean Room of the San Jose Hyatt, 1740 N. First Street in San Jose. Instead of fare increases, SCVTARU calls upon VTA to bite the bullet and get control their spending habits which create the highest management costs for a transit agency in the nation. VTA's fare increase proposal has adult one-way fares increase from $1.50 to $1.75 – a 17% increase. Adult montly passes will go from the current $52.50 to $61.25 – a 14% increase. The highest increases go to senior and disabled monthly passes. VTA proposes to raise the price for these passes from $17.50 to $27.50 – a 37% increase! With another fare increase in 2005 also planned, VTA's transit fares could soon become the highest transit fares in the country. SCVTARU fears that VTA's fare hike proposals will price itself out of reach of many in Silicon Valley – resulting in further reduced ridership and additional service reductions. This has dire consequences for the quality of life in Silicon Valley, as residents may soon choose between driving in gridlock or using a transit service priced out of reach as an alternative to traffic gridlock. SCVTARU agrees with an opinion piece made by Mountain View City Councilmember Greg Perry in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/7814708.htm) regarding how VTA spending is out of control. In that Mr. Perry specified how VTA spends $134/hour to run a bus – double that of other transit agencies in the nation, and triple that of private transit operators such as Laidlaw. Mr. Perry also asked why VTA needs 65% more administrators to run its buses than other transit agencies, and asks why VTA needs one administrator per bus when the average transit agency in the nation has one administrator for every four buses. SCVTARU agrees with Mr. Perry on these concerns, as these are examples of our tax revenue and fare revenue being wasted. Given this information, it is shocking to SCVTARU that VTA continues to propose ways to drive transit ridership in Silicon Valley to zero. In another agenda item for tomorrow's workshop (http://www.vta.org/inside/boards/packets/2004/01_jan/013004/5.html), VTA claims that ridership dropped 18% between the 2001-2002 fiscal year and September 2003. While VTA staff claims that the economy played a role in the ridership drop, they are only telling half the story. In that time span, VTA has had two fare increases and reduced transit service in Silicon Valley by over 15%. VTA Board Chair Don Gage even admitted in the Morgan Hill Times that VTA's fare hikes and service reductions have played a role in reducing transit ridership. Sadly, SCVTARU finds this message falls on deaf ears for the rest of VTA's Board members and management. VTA must change its attitude and do the right thing. VTA's out of control spending has lead to the fare hikes and transit service cuts that continue to diminish the quality of life in Silicon Valley, in the form of more traffic gridlock and more smog in our air. SCVTARU is more than willing to work with VTA Board members and management to control their spending habits. ### 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