I’ve seen the Caltrain South County ridership numbers: Gilroy, 100 riders per day; San Martin, 22 riders per day; Morgan Hill, 120 riders per day; Blossom Hill, 54 riders per day; Capitol, 42 riders per day.
These five stations south of Tamien are not electrified and Caltrain doesn’t own the tracks; Union Pacific Railroad does.
I’ve been trying for nine years to get the City of Gilroy and Caltrain to advertise, educate and encourage ridership. It’s not built into our culture and it’s a heavy lift for me to continue promoting Caltrain to South County and, in the future, to Salinas.
We recently talked about this at our May South County VTA agenda preparation meeting with VTA staff and Caltrain staff. VTA plays a role in our development review process; Caltrain doesn’t.
As of February 2025, the VTA’s Frequent 68 (San Jose to Gilroy every day) runs every 15 minutes and averages 4,219 daily boardings. The Rapid 568 (San Jose to Gilroy Monday-Friday) runs every 30 minutes and averages 932 daily boardings. I’ve been keeping track for a few years and reporting out the numbers at Gilroy City Council meetings and my newsletters.
Those are numbers to support the cost to operate, while we continue to shift residents to transit.
I attended the May VTA Joint Committees workshop where we reviewed the budget and asked questions. Caltrain is putting the full burden of the South County Caltrain (Capitol, Blossom Hill, Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy) cost onto VTA and it’s been estimated to reach $15 million.
That’s not worth it for this budget cycle. Per the 1996 Restated Joint Powers Agreement (JPA Sections A and B), VTA is “responsible for all net operating costs of the Gilroy service” and “obtaining all Gilroy Service capital projects.”
It does not obligate Caltrain or VTA to operate service to Gilroy, though it assumed there would always be a market.
VTA, Caltrain and South County communities do minimal to increase South County Caltrain ridership, so the expectation that suddenly ridership on Caltrain will increase is not a reality today. It’s not fiscally responsible to fund $15 million for 338 riders per day Monday through Friday. Enhancing the current South County ridership of the Frequent 68 and Rapid 568 lines is the more fiscally responsible path for these next two years.
I’ve encouraged the VTA board and Caltrain board to pause South County Caltrain service for the next two years while we work collaboratively with all partners on ways to double track or purchase the existing tracks with a goal to have the same service levels as Tamien to San Francisco.
Use the savings to enhance the successful current services on the VTA Frequent 68 and Rapid 568 bus lines that currently serve thousands of daily riders from South County.
Many residents are employed outside of Gilroy, but we have a large population that work, attend school and are retired in Gilroy. Thirty-eight percent of our population is aged 24 years and younger. They benefit from local transit and rideshare.
We are actively advancing ideas and projects that promote the concept of free-range people in the City of Gilroy. We advocate for building and planning that considers future generations as well as current residents who don’t own cars.
Advancing mobility options reflects what we are teaching the youth in our community through Safe Routes to School and why we are nationally recognized as a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists, as well as recognized by the World Health Organization as an Age-Friendly Community.
The City of Gilroy is a Complete Streets and Recreation Destination community by resolution. I am proud to represent Gilroy on the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) in 2025.
Zach Hilton
Gilroy City Council member
Zach, I don’t agree with you on this. I take Caltrain weekly to the peninsula. My train ride is 1.5 hours each way. The bus ride from Gilroy to Tamien is going to take 2 hours and then I need another hour to get to work. Your proposal makes my commute 3 hours each way, at that point I might as well drive, do we need more cars on our already congested freeways? What other options have we explored? Are there grants that we can utilize? Are we able to decrease the number of trains from Gilroy while still maintaining service?
Take a look at the freeways during rush hour, it doesn’t seem like we have “many people working and living in Gilroy”.
Consider writing directly to Caltrain, as this will likely have the greatest impact https://www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/contact-us#feedback
Correction, I take it daily, every week
Tamien Caltrain will be shut down for work on the Guadalupe Bridge for at least 8 months starting soon and VTA will provide a bus bridge from Tamien to Diridon. So it would be best to take the bus from Gilroy to San Jose’s Diridon on the Rapid 568 (runs every 30 minutes M-F) gets you to Diridon Caltrain in 1 hr. The Frequent 68 (runs every 15 minutes daily) gets you to San Jose Diridon Caltrain in 1.5 hours.
These five stations south of Tamien are not electrified. When you get to San Jose Diridon Caltrain you get off and have to tranfer to an electric train. South County Caltrain service doesn’t have the impact needed to relieve congestion on U.S. Route 101 today or historically.
The current 338 riders/day for the cost of $15,000,000/year is not fiscally responsible to continue when they aren’t serving the current commute travel patterns while VTA is facing a fiscally constrained FY26 and FY27 Transit Operating Budget. Caltrain is heading into a deficit for FY27 too.
The cost to run South County Caltrain service starts at $15,000,000. More trains or increased frequency will increase that cost. There are no grants that would be beneficial in funding this current level of service and ridership. Caltrain is currently using Federal Tax funds to operate South County Caltrain and that is about to run out. Those funds could be better on service that meets the needs for mass transit. Gilroy isn’t the starting point for traffic any longer. San Benito County and Monterey County drivers contribute to it now as well.
The bike cars are typically packed on the south county trains, how would all the bike riders commute using the VTA system with only two bikes per bus?
Also, during these two years, why not keep the current train lines and look for solutions without affecting hundreds of families with this decision? With the longer commute times that taking the bus during peak hours takes, families are affected by not being able to drop off their kids on time, or are away from their families from longer times in the evening taking the bus instead of the train.
I take the train daily with my partner, this would be extremely disappointing if this was cancelled.
I take south county connector every week and the train is always full with folks depending on the day.
I don’t agree with this plan as it adds such a material amount of time on an already hefty commute.
Consider writing directly to Caltrain, as this will likely have the greatest impact https://www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/contact-us#feedback
Dear Friends,
What good is a Marxist-Leninist transport policy to the taxpayers who are the “stakeholders” never at the table for discussion of what our transport policy ought to be?
Powerful vested interests, as the late honorable Don Gage mentioned to me years ago, who not only are at the table, but who control the cards that are dealt out, are rewarded for the fraud, waste and abuse at our so-called transit agencies (unelected governance spending our money without the consent of the governed).
While the National Transportation Policy has “efficiency” in it four times, and long before the creation of a department of government efficiency, in practice we do just the opposite, while we reject the advice given by experts both State and Federal that transport be funded by “user fees.”
VTA and its ilk give the wrong answer to the late honorable Norm Mineta’s “crucial question,” which he stated in 1995 at the Institute at SJSU that now bears his name: “The crucial question in transportation today is: What should government do, and what should it leave to others?”
I repeat what I said in my letter published by Mark Derry many years ago—government watchdog committees at VTA are shameful hypocrites to their core.
Unless we get real change, gas taxes will continue to increase so that empty bus & train & lite rail & Bullet Train seats can be transported empty almost 100% of the time, while transit agency brass back-slap themselves silly crowing about “SUCCESS,” when the truth is just the opposite.
Refer to my testimony before the Assembly Transportation Committee in 2010 in support of legislation to defund the CAHSRA’s supermassive black hole, and my many letters published by Editor of Dispatch during past 30 years.
Lenin would be so proud of VTA, COG, etc.
Caveat viator.
Joseph P. Thompson, Esq.,
Past-President 1999-2001, 2006, Gilroy-Morgan Hill Bar Assn.;
Past-Chair, Legislation Committee, Transportation Lawyers Assn.,
Charter-Member, SBCCOG Citizens Transit Task Force;
Charter Member, SBCCOG Citizens Rail Advisory Committee;
Post-doc student, transport law & policy, Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies, SJSU; Transportation Research Board, Georgetown U.; and Library of Congress;
408-848-5506:
E-Mail: Tr******@*****ll.Net
cc: Secretary Duffy
Consider writing directly to Caltrain, as this will likely have the greatest impact https://www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/contact-us#feedback
This is ridiculous. My whole team from work in Palo Alto takes the Caltrain M-F and go to the stations south of tamien. If you are suggesting this then it your responsibility to come up with a solution that is actually helpful for all the riders that will be affected. True leaders find solutions to help their communities not just come up with ideas without thinking about the community it might affect. Also suggesting people take the bus which is 1.5 hours to dirdon from Gilroy is also not a “solution.” That would make the commute 3 hours each way and 6 hours in total. At that point we would probably all drive adding more to the congested highways. Honestly I’m not even surprised at this proposal and lack of thought for the people it might affect.
Consider writing directly to Caltrain, as this will likely have the greatest impact https://www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/contact-us#feedback
This is a horrible idea. I take train daily M-F and it is almost always full, especially the bike cars. Standing room only usually in the afternoon bike cars. If they were to pause Caltrain all of these people would end up driving. This is certainly one way to discourage people to commute by bike and public transportation.
Zach refuses to answer the logistical question of how all of the bikes will fit on a VTA bus. He should go to Morgan Hill train platform in the morning and count all the bike riders.
Consider writing directly to Caltrain, as this will likely have the greatest impact https://www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/contact-us#feedback
Dear Friends,
As I said before Caltrain was started from Gilroy, it would be cheaper for taxpayers if we bought each Caltrain rider his/her own BMW or Mercedes. Caveat viator. Joseph P. Thompson E-Mail: Tr******@*****ll.Net, 408-848-5506