South Bay transit leaders: Prioritize schedule and fare integration
South Bay Transit leaders who participated in a recent study delegation to Switzerland believe that integrating schedules and fares, in addition to providing significantly more frequent service, should be key priorities for growing Bay Area transit ridership.
Leaders discussed these and other ideas during a panel discussion that was part of Seamless Bay Area’s November 16th event, Transforming Transit: A Swiss-style rider-focused public transit system in the South Bay, in Downtown San Jose. You can view the video recording here or below.
This event followed a one-week in-person study tour of Switzerland’s public transportation system by 11 Bay Area public transit leaders in June 2023. Switzerland’s high-ridership public transit system, with seamlessly integrated service and fares across numerous jurisdictions and transit agencies – connecting urban, suburban, and rural areas alike – is an important model for the South Bay and the Bay Area as the region seeks to transform our public transit.
The panelists at this discussion included:
Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, VTA/Caltrain/MTC Board of Directors;
Michelle Bouchard, Executive Director, Caltrain;
Jay Tyree (via pre-recorded video), Transit Service Planning Manager, VTA; and
Ian Griffiths, Policy Director, Seamless Bay Area
Moderated by Tamara Alvarado, Packard Foundation
The November 16th panel discussion was Seamless Bay Area’s first event in the South Bay, taking place at CreaTV in San Jose. Pictured (from left to right): Tamara Alvarado, Cindy Chavez, Ian Griffiths, and Michelle Bouchard.
It’s simple: Fare and schedule coordination
Supervisor Cindy Chavez indicated her view that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) should focus on fare and schedule integration in the Bay Area.
“In some respects we have made transit accessibility very complicated here,” Chavez said. Transit operators funding in Switzerland is contingent upon agencies coordinating their schedules with other operators and opting into a regional fare system. “It’s really simple there. You want to get money, you have to be able to do these two things.”
Chavez believes a similar model would improve transit and help grow ridership in the Bay Area. Thankfully, we already have proof that fare integration helps grow ridership. Clipper BayPass recipients, for example, take 40% more trips on average than their peers. Additionally, the free/reduced cost transfer program will go into effect with the rollout of Clipper 2.0 and is anticipated to generate 27,500+ new daily transit users.
Bouchard agreed that transportation leaders must stay focused on coordinating fares and schedules.
“The kind of transformation that’s happening there and the kind of visionary plans – if all the agencies can somehow get coordinated around that we really can bring Bay Area transformation to the next level,” Bouchard said.
Increasing service and visionary plans
South Bay agencies realize that growing ridership requires more frequent, all-day service.
Caltrain, for instance, recently announced its new electrified service schedule beginning in fall 2024. Off-peak weekday and weekend periods will see 30-minute headways and many stations will receive 15-minute headways during peak weekday periods.
Beginning Fall 2024, Caltrain is increasing service with trains arriving every 30 minutes and every 15 minutes during peak hours. This is thanks to new electrified trains models that will also reduce trip times by up to 28 minutes on local service (Source).
“During the pandemic [Caltrain has] made a very strong transition away from commute focus to providing bi-directional service for all sorts of folks taking all sorts of trips and that’s what we need to continue to focus on,” Bouchard said. “I'd like to say that we’re really living out some European-Swiss principles.”
Providing high-frequency and interconnected service is difficult in our current “funding sparse era,” Bouchard noted, but agencies must keep working towards improving the system for riders. To learn more about transforming Caltrain and our regional Bay Area rail network, watch this discussion from earlier this year.
VTA also adopted its Visionary Network Plan earlier this year, envisioning significantly more frequent service for Santa Clara County. Tyree said he’s proud of VTA’s Board of Directors for approving this ambitious plan, which would require new sources of funding to implement 83% more service (compared to 2023), costing 44% above the current operating budget, and anticipated to attract 45-70% more riders.
As a point of comparison, the Zurich metro area receives four times more service than Santa Clara County, each with a respective population of 1.5 and 1.9 million people.
“[Switzerland] just spends a much greater share of their public funds on transit,” Jay Tyree said. “The foundation of their success in transit is high service levels. They provide many times more service per capita than we do, meaning more buses and more trains arriving more often and serving more places all day, seven days a week so the transit is much more attractive. It takes you more places, faster.”
Bringing International Best Practices to the Bay Area
The November 16th discussion was Seamless Bay Area’s first event in the South Bay, made possible with the support of the Knight Foundation and Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West.
In August, Seamless Bay Area held a webinar with other members of the delegation who visited Switzerland, including staff from BART, SF Bay Ferry, MTC, and SPUR. Panelists of that webinar identified additional key takeaways applicable to the Bay Area, including the importance of linking new funding with integration, service-based planning for integrated networks, and the importance of designing networks around customer needs.
Seamless Bay Area the study delegation to Switzerland in order to help educate Bay Area transit professionals on global best practices, and promote adoption of these practices at Bay Area agencies. Events to share the lessons from the study tour are intended to maximize the impact of these transformative study tours, and foster engagement between elected officials and community members.
A joint report summarizing the learnings from the study tour is now being finalized by the delegation participants, with the goal of sharing lessons learned even more broadly with agencies - and turning the learnings from the study trip into action.
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