Great! Caltrain OKs making its already highly inequitable fares even more inequitable. Using the new fares:

Redwood City to Menlo Park cost: $5.75 ($1.69 per mile)
Redwood City to San Francisco : $5.75 ($0.22 per mile)

The affluent companies with their six-figure salaried employees have been paying a whopping $180.00 per person PER YEAR for unlimited rides on the train.

That fare will go up a whole TEN DOLLARS A YEAR!

That's right. A YEAR! Not a week, not a month.... A YEAR!
What does the normal citizenry pay? They don't get access to the annual pass-only the monthly. Up to $338 A MONTH.

Let's compare:

Wealthy tech worker's company pays $180 per year.
Normal transit user pays $4056 per year!

That is 22 1/2 times more!

The elite are not only riding for free, their politically influential employers have negotiated a sweetheart deal for themselves and force the less fortunate riders to subsidize the cost and expenses of the service. Wake up people!

Just one of the benefits of a good college degree I guess.

And, like a bad penny the VTA BRT hucksters appear.

No way to the VTA>

The math in the article is emphasizing a particular price point for companies and institutions purchasing a GO pass.

From caltrain's website "in 2016 the total cost will be the greater of $190 per eligible user or $15,960". Web Link Yes, if a company only has 84 full-time employees, who ALL ride the caltrain, then it's ~$190 per employee / rider. In reality the company is paying considerably higher per rider given not all employees are riding the train.

For example, a company with a 1k employees, where 10% are riding the caltrain, is $1900 per rider a year.

I agree that the corporate pricing should be looked at, but the math is a bit fuzzier than a simple $10 increase per rider for the GO passes.

That's TEN DOLLARS A YEAR!

It doesn't matter if every employee takes advantage of the free unlimited access to Caltrain. The option provides value to them regardless of actual use. At the end of the day, you have an affluent person paying 180/year and a normal person (for want of a better word) paying over $4,000 dollars for the same public transit service.

This is why the anti-bus brigade are so angry at the BRT project. With buses, the affluent will pay at least as much as everyone else! (Oh No!!!)!Same old story. The right-wing wealthy think that since they pay more taxes than the middle-class, they should get more services including transit.

These same anti-BRT'ers will be voting for Donald Trump on ideological grounds. Donald Trump! The guy who would set up internment camps for people that bear a resemblance to certain extremists. It all leads back to the same thing. Class warfare.

Fortunately, most everyone is on board for improving N-S bus service, so it will happen. Good day that will be!

Should Macys have different prices depending on your annual income? We happen to have an free market system in this country so why should Caltrain engage in social engineering?

Caltrain provides a good service, runs on time, is increasing ridership (over 10% y/y), has a fare recovery of over 60% (compared to VTA's less than 15%) and most importantly it frequently runs at or above seated capacity. All while not making an overt attempt to make life worse for the majority of citizens in Mountain View. VTA.....not so much.

I've got no problem with a small fare increase from Caltrain.

Might as well use the car, seems cheaper, quicker and more convenient.

I still don't understand the $0.50 flat increase across the board, which is typically what Caltrain favors. That's a much higher % increase for the 1 zone ticket. My suggestion to them was to increase fares a little more equitably, and to add a cheaper one stop ticket.