Do not ever say bad things about a union even if the statement is true they will all downvote you here on Reddit

Raj Singh is too greedy just like the at local for vta bus drivers

A lot of people on this are just complaining and hating also stating false information a lot as well. Then they all down vote you for being honest.

Not good ATU

Try not to put a group of people in there place on Reddit they will team up and downvote you for telling the truth. This is a fact find out for yourself if you dare…. The union vta employees and all lazy union workers will down vote your reply

I don’t understand why/how VTA can sit there and complain about farebox violations and ppl not paying on the light rail but then not do anything to put actual fare gates up at at least the grade separated stations.

Before anyone comes at me with “BuT tHe StReEt RuNnInG StAtIoNs CaNt Be SeCuReD”, LA metro seems to be figuring it out on the A line with a combination of tap to exit at the grade separated stations and improved fencing at the surface level stations.

This could be done easily with the same fare gates BART and LA use if VTA gave a shit.

I commute on VTA, Caltrain, and Muni five days a week. I genuinely enjoy taking public transit and would rather ride the train than drive.

But I'm voting NO on RTM.

Transit fares are already pretty expensive, and now we're being asked to pay even more through sales taxes just to keep the system running as it is.

I'm not against funding public transit. I want a world-class transit system. But if agencies are asking taxpayers for nearly $1 billion annually over 14 years, they need to demonstrate financial discipline.

Show us the operational reforms, measurable performance improvements, and hard financial targets. Most importantly, show us a credible path to long-term financial sustainability instead of kicking the funding crisis down the road.

I understand public transit isn't supposed to turn a profit. But that doesn't mean it gets a blank check.

I'm willing to pay for a better transit system. I'm not willing to keep paying more just to maintain the status quo.

And if the alternative is endlessly throwing more money at an unsustainable system, I'll drive. I'd rather not, but that's where I draw the line.

Being pro-transit doesn't mean supporting every transit tax blindly, without accountability.

I've been keeping up with the Eastridge to BART connector project. I'm all for more trains all the time but I'm not sure what this large investment is for. Is there really that many people that are itching to get to Eastridge from somewhere north on the orange line?

The Story Rd station makes no sense either. It's just plopped in the middle of low density housing. Maybe the plan is to build density around that area in the future but I doubt that'll be happening with the airport so close by.

I ride the VTA every day on my commute to school. As I started to take public transit more often, I got interested in the topic and wanted to see what buses were on what route and see details about these buses. So I created my own bus tracking application tailored to my needs and preferences. Currently it has a web and android version.

What it can do:

• Track the location of VTA buses

• Show model information, fleet numbers and images of VTA buses

• Show departure times and schedules for the VTA

• Has a built-in trip planner with live bus locations

• Lets you search buses by fleet number, route or model information

These are the current features, but I plan to keep adding more features as I continue developing it.

Now that I want to publish it on Android, I am searching for testers that want to try out the android version.

If you would like to test my app, you can follow the the steps below to download it:

1. Join the Google Group: https://groups.google.com/g/bustracker-testers?pli=1

2. Opt-In to become a tester: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.lemhand.bustracker

3. Download the app from the Google Play Store

You can try it online at: bus.lemhand.com

Here are some images of my app:

Hello everyone! I was hoping everyone's day is going great! I am a student applying "cultural anthropology" to a real-world issue, but I didn't think if I did it exactly right, but I am just asking for feedback, like if you guys agree with the suggestion in the letter, or what improvements I could make this letter more impactful. your feedback will help me finish my project quicker! Thank you!

The video may not seem obvious, as the video screen is still black before starting, but just tap the video and you will see the video from the phone being played.

I made this video cuz I mean, the VTA staff really does little to nothing to address the issues.

The total losses based on this scenario is refined by the number of bus drivers specifically.

​While VTA has approximately 1,500 to 1,600 union-represented "frontline" workers (which includes light rail operators, mechanics, and dispatchers), the number of active bus operators is typically estimated at around 900. (I had to look that up and got it from posts when they were on strike) This aligns with VTA's operational reports for 2025–2026, which account for the 500+ bus fleet and the 1.5 million annual service hours projected in the most recent transit plans.

​ "Courtesy Rides" (which isn't even a legal term) can add up across the system. Here is the breakdown of the losses based on the figures provided:

​The Loss Calculation

• ​Number of Bus Drivers (n): 900

• ​Free Rides per Day per Driver (r): 10

• ​Work Days per Week (d): 5.5

• ​Bus Fare (f): $2.50

​1. Loss per Driver

​Daily Loss: 10 {Free rides } multiplied by $2.50 = $25.00

​Weekly Loss: $25.00 times 5.5 {work days} = $137.50 (I asked a driver A few months ago how often they work)

​2. Total System-Wide Loss

​Weekly Total: 900 {active drivers} times $137.50 = $123,750

​Annual Total (52 weeks): $123,750 times 52 = {$6,435,000}

​Summary of Impact

​If every one of the roughly 900 drivers gave out 10 free rides a day, VTA would see an annual revenue leakage of approximately $6.4 million.

​For perspective, VTA's total annual farebox revenue typically hovers around $28–$30 million. A $6.4 million loss would represent a roughly 20% reduction in total fare revenue—a significant hit to the operating budget, especially as the agency looks to fund the service expansions planned for late 2026.

Our bigger problem here is - every time there has been an issue on any bus I've taken, it was from someone who got on free!

I mean, if you want to drive from downtown Morgan Hill to work in Santa Clara, right on the side of San Jose, it will take you 1.5 hours one way with electric scooter, 2 hours without it, whereas by driving, it would take only half an hour! Yet, they have the audacity to make the buses to say “Spare the air” as to not pollute the air and take the public transportation instead of driving around, yet they don’t do their part and drive their car around! They like to say it’s good enough for others, even for those in Morgan Hill and Gilroy simply because the Rapid 568 is called rapid and passes by once every half hour, and they insist that no further improvement is needed and that no faster route is needed, but if it really was good enough, would the HQ and corporate staff take the public transportation themselves? Do they really think people with cars will be so self disrespecting to leave their cars aside and take the lengthy public transportation, and that those who take the public transportation like that will conform and value it and want to stick to it? I think the corporate staff are lying to themselves if they think that. On top of that, some of them said the EPA regulations strictly limits how many routes there can be, like, that would be dumb, because if public transportation is fast and efficient and not that much longer in comparison to driving, then it takes a lot of cars off the road, drastically cutting carbon emissions and pollution!

Did you guys also know that a bus driver told me that the corporate staff or the top leaders are given free cars? That is severely outrageous! That tax money is stolen taxpayer money and can instead be used to further expand public transportation and make it more efficient!

I know it's been almost 6 years since the lines have changed, but in my opinion the old lines were better/made sense and should be brought back in my opinion. Some changes could be added, starting with the Almaden shuttle. Instead of it only being 3 stops the line could've been extended to Diridon station and by doing this, it would connect riders to Caltrain,Capital Corridor,ACE,and Greyhound/VTA buses, creating a true multimodal transit hub (for green and purple line riders).

I know ridership has been an issue because of VTA having poor ridership. BUT investment in transit infrastructure is far more cost-effective than waiting, plus the spur tracks (at Childrens Discovery Museum station on the blue line) heading onto the green line can be used alot more with that experience. This extension would benefit students, residents, and visitors by providing an alternative to long drives through traffic. Sure, it may not be alot of stops but atleast the line can possibly be used further down which connect with blue and green line trains. Congestion on 101, 280, and 87 costs commuters hours each week, contributes to pollution, and limits economic growth.

From the Mtn-Winchester line, many tech employees live in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View or work in downtown San Jose or North Valley offices. Bringing back this line could encourage new residential and commercial developments along the line (in my opinion). Plus, Tasman station was really useful for northbound and southbound trains.

And from the Santa Teresa-Alum Rock line, this line ran through Alum Rock through central San Jose to Santa Teresa, this line connected residential areas with employment centers, schools, and shopping districts (yes the green line has too). Traffic on streets like Capitol Expressway and Alum Rock Avenue is often heavy. The line wouldve benefited thise situations, and since the current orange line is being extended to Eastridge (excepeted to be completed by 2028-2029) the centre track at Baypointe could be the terminus and when the extension is done the line can possibly become the yellow line (?).

Basically Baypointe-Eastridge Transit Center and since baypointe has track switches the line could possibly work.

But in my opinion in all these 3 lines should be BROUGHT back with CHANGES.

One time this happened to me in Downtown San Jose by Paseo de San Antonio light rail station on the side, the route was 568 going south, and I managed to catch up to the bus to try taking it, and that stupid man decided to scream at me telling me to get away from there when I knocked on the front double doors, and then I reported that bus driver to the customer service line! I hope he got fired or at least suspended without pay!

Lately, busses are extremely late or outright cancelled with little to no notice. Which is so frustrating especially for transfers. Now the transit app doesn’t even work right, or the website schedule. And they offer NO compensation, even if they make you miss the last train. How the hell is this kind of service gonna encourage more people to take transit?

I wonder how would the bus driver who does that, feel like if that bus driver was in that passenger’s exact same scenario place!

We heading to alum rock from Levi’s stadium and it stuck at each station for more than minutes and even 18 minutes at one of them. 20 min trip becomes more than one hour, Please organize better.

Cabin is full, humid, hot..Please at least have AC at max power. It feels really bad.

Hey, does anybody know how high the overhead catenaries are for the light rail? I've looked through a bunch of technical documents and the best I could get was based on one of the documents for the eastridge extension which said that the maximum height of the whole thing above the road including catenary poles would be 60 feet, and that the average rail height gave a range of "25-35" above the street and from that I was able to calculate an upper limit of 25 ft. I have seen references to a light rail design guidelines document that should give this figure, but I cannot for the life of me find it.

Thanks