As transit operators around the Bay Area celebrate September as transit month, the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (TA) wanted to share in the festivities with a few highlights of how both the voter-approved Measure A and Measure W sales tax revenues support local transit.
Did you know more than a 1/3 of TA-administered Measure A and Measure W funding is dedicated to transit?
Measure A dedicates 45% of the sales tax revenue to transit programs that include ferries, accessible services, shuttles, railroad grade separations, and direct funding for Caltrain and BART. Of the TA’s 50% share of Measure W, 12% of the sales tax revenues are dedicated to transit programs including grade separations along the Caltrain corridor and regional transit connections. The other 50% of Measure W is administered by SamTrans and directly support their transit operations and projects.
Below are three recent transit programs and projects supported directly by TA-administered Measure A and Measure W funding:
Caltrain Program: South San Francisco Station
The South San Francisco Caltrain Station was reconstructed to provide a wider, rider-friendly center platform and reconfigured the tracks to allow trains to pass each other while another is stopped at the station, which was previously prohibited. The project also provides a new pedestrian underpass connecting the west and east sides of the station that supports South San Francisco’s focus on new downtown transit-oriented and mixed-use developments. The station opened to Caltrain riders last year. The TA contributed $44.5 million in Measure A funds toward the total project cost of $96.6 million, along with $38.8 million of Federal Transit Administration funds the TA helped secure for the project.
Accessible Services Program: Annual Contribution to the SamTrans Paratransit Program
Each year the TA adopts a new budget that includes direct funding for a limited number of funding programs. Measure A dedicates 4% of the sales revenue for accessible services which helps fund the SamTrans Paratransit Program. Paratransit is for people with disabilities who cannot independently use SamTrans bus services some or all of the time. The service is known as “Redi-Wheels” on the bayside and “RediCoast” on the coastside of San Mateo County. For 2024, the TA is providing $4.6 million toward the program.
Ferry Program: Progress on a Second South San Francisco Ferry Terminal and a new Redwood City Ferry Terminal
Not all transit in San Mateo County relies on roads or rails — there’s also the San Francisco Bay Ferry with a terminal in South San Francisco. Measure A provides 2% of the sales tax revenue toward establishing our local ferry services. The only two cities with viable ferry terminals when Measure A was passed were South San Francisco and Redwood City. The cities agreed to split the revenue equally. The existing South San Francisco terminal opened in 2012 and was supported by $8 million in TA funding. Ferries in South San Francisco have been so successful that the city is conducting a feasibility study for a second ferry terminal with a $350,000 grant from the TA. Redwood City is also currently in environmental clearance and conceptual design phase of a new ferry terminal at the Port of Redwood City using $3.5 million grant from the TA Ferry Program.
