The city manager of Lathrop is doubling down on the contention that expanded service by the San Joaquin Regional Transit District represents a “transit disaster” for all the cities in the Stockton area.
Armed with data on the district’s operations based on a public records request, City Manager Stephen Salvatore wrote in a letter to RTD CEO Alex Clifford that his analysis shows some transit lines have shockingly high per-passenger subsidies — with one at $359 per rider.
Plus, Salvatore said the existing bus fleet is badly underutilized. He also wrote that the district lacks the legal authority to operate intercity operations within San Joaquin County.
It’s a proposal to extend intercity transit service that led Salvatore and others from all eight San Joaquin County cities to spearhead a joint letter to the district last month protesting the changes. That letter included city managers and administrators from Stockton, Tracy, Lathrop, Manteca, Ripon, Lodi, Escalon and Mountain House. This time, the latest letter comes from Salvatore by himself.
Salvatore wrote to RTD in a letter dated Thursday that the district is engaged in a “multi-million dollar boondoggle” in operating a “costly, uncoordinated and underperforming network” that falls short of delivering meaningful public benefit.
Stocktonia has reached out to RTD for a comment. It said in response to the previous letter that its leaders were surprised at the sudden opposition since city executives had been briefed on the district’s plans.
Among the most eye-popping accusations in Salvatore’s latest letter are the amounts of public subsidies for some transit lines. Some lines pick up an average of fewer than one or two passengers an hour, resulting in sky-high subsidies per passenger. They include the district’s Van Go! program that has a subsidy of $190 per passenger and Hopper Line 97, which serves Tracy, Manteca and Lathrop, with a subsidy of nearly $359 per passenger, according to the letter.
“This is the transit disaster we worked to prevent, and it is unfolding under your leadership,” Salvatore wrote. “Hard working taxpayers should not be subsidizing near empty buses.”
He also alleges waste when it comes to fleet size. The district had 131 buses, he wrote, but only operates 106 of them at peak.
Salvatore shared the letter with the same city leaders who signed his previous missive. He suggests forming a technical advisory committee to go over the district’s data in further detail.