Atherton: Jim Janz says Caltrain has 'destroyed ridership' in Atherton Atherton: Jim Janz says Caltrain has 'destroyed ridership' in Atherton (August 17, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

Atherton Councilman Jim Janz has said all along that Caltrain's service cuts would doom the Atherton train station to oblivion. Now that trains don't stop at the town's historic station on weekdays, riders can catch a shuttle service to the Redwood City train station, but those who do so are few and far between.

Atherton lost weekday train service on August 1 as part of a cocktail of time-saving and cost-cutting measures embraced by Caltrain's Joint Powers Board this summer.

"Caltrain has destroyed ridership at our station," said Atherton Councilman Jim Janz. "We had over 300 riders a day in 2002, and after cuts to our service we had 115. Now, with nothing but shuttles, we only have a handful of riders."

Caltrain agreed to run shuttles to the nearby Redwood City train station during morning and evening commute hours, as a way to keep the station viable for people who walk to it or who want to take advantage of the free parking. The shuttle makes seven trips in the morning between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., and seven in the evening between 4 p.m. and 7:11 p.m.

Daily ridership numbers for the first week and a half of shuttle service ranged from a high of 27 to a low of 15, according to figures provided by Caltrain.

That's compared to the Atherton station's average weekday ridership in February, before train service was suspended, when 133 people boarded the train in Atherton and 111 got off, said spokeswoman Christine Dunn.

Typically, August is not a great month for transit agencies, since schools aren't in session and many people are on vacation, said Ms. Dunn. Things usually pick up in September, she said.

Mr. Janz said he thought the shuttles were a terrible replacement for train service.

"But we're going to do our best to get people to use them until we get train service restored," he said.

After a concerted lobbying effort, Atherton officials were able to save weekend train service, as were their counterparts in Burlingame, who protested vociferously against the proposed closure of the Broadway station.

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