OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
500 Castro Street, P.O. Box 7540
Mountain View, CA 94039-7540
650-903-6301 | MountainView.gov
M
ay 26, 2026
M
s. Carolyn Gonot
Chief Executive Officer/General Manager
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
3331 N. First Street, Building B
San Jose, CA 95134
SUB
JECT: City of Mountain View Priorities for VTA’s Local Investment Plan Under SB 63 De
ar Ms. Gonot,
I
would like to acknowledge and thank the VTA staff team for attending the Mountain View City Council meeting on April 14, 2026, and presenting on VTA’s Local Investment Plan for Senate Bill
63. The City recognizes the potential revenue for Santa Clara County that could be generated if voters approve the SB 63 regional sales tax measure.
T
ransit is an essential component of the transportation system in Mountain View, with a transit commute mode share more than double the county rate. The Mountain View Transit Center is a regionally important transit hub, bringing together Caltrain, VTA’s Light Rail, five VTA bus routes, and public and private shuttle systems. This transit hub facilitat es local trips and allows people throughout the region to travel to work in the north part of Mountain View where technology jobs are abundant.
T
he Mountain View Transit Center has the third-highest ridership in the Caltrain System at 2,288 average weekday boardings in 2025. VTA’s highest ridership bus lines, the 22 and 522, travel through Mountain View on El Camino Real, providing service to neighboring cities and San Jose.
The Mountain View Community Shuttle further promotes transit use by providing first/last -mile connections to VTA and Caltrain and local circulation to areas not directly served by VTA.
T
he City of Mountain View concurs with the goals of the expenditure plan to grow transit ridership, increase productivity, and enhance customer experience as presented at the April 14 Council meeting. We would like to see these goals realized in Mountain View and we request that VTA’s plan invest the sales taxes raised in Mountain View into transit services and improvements in Mountain View.
Attachment 1
City of Mountain View Priorities for the VTA Local Investment Plan May 26, 2026
On May 26, 2026, the City Council approved the following four priorities for investing funds in Mountain View to help VTA realize its goals for the expenditure plan:
• Increase VTA transit services in Mountain View
Mountain View strongly supports the implementation of VTA’s Visionary Network within the City. The Visionary Network will increase light rail and frequent buses to 10-minute headways, local buses to 20 -minute headways, and expand service hours to reach early morning and late-night customers. Increased frequency on VTA Light Rail and Local Bus Routes 40 and 21 will significantly improve transfers at the Mountain View Transit Center. Increased frequency on Route 51 will support students at Mountain View High School and Graham Middle School.
Enhancements to Rapid 522 and Route 22 will improve connections to neighboring cities and further strengthen El Camino Real as the backbone of the transit system . These improvements will meet the community’s needs and make transit a viable option for more trips across the city.
• Provide Financial Support for Mountain View’s Community Shuttle
The Mountain View Community Shuttle is a fixed-route bus service that provides critical first- and last-mile connections, extending the reach and viability of Caltrain and VTA. The service connects riders to the Mountain View Transit Center, VTA Light Rail s tations, and major bus transfer points such as Showers Drive. It provides access to schools, medical facilities, community services, and employment centers that have minimal or no VTA transit service.
The shuttle is extremely well used, serving over 22,000 riders a month.
The City fully funds the service from its own budget, but with stagnant revenues and many competing City priorities, it is a concern as to how much longer the City can continue to operate the shuttle service at current levels. As a fixed -route transit service, the shuttle is eligible for SB 63 funding. Providing financial support for the shuttle supports VTA’s goal of growing ridership by directly funding the service and strengthening shuttle connections to VTA’s own transit services.
• Close the Funding Gap for the Rengstorff Grade Separation Project
The City has been working on the Rengstorff Grade Separation project for almost 20 years.
This important project will provide much -needed transit, pedestrian, and bicycle safety improvements in the most economically disadvantaged area of the City. It will eliminate collisions at the tracks, significantly improving Caltrain operations and, in turn, supporting ridership growth, productivity, and customer experience. The project will also eliminate significant backups on Rengstorff Avenue at the Caltrain crossing, increasing productivity and customer experience for VTA’s Bus Route 40 and the Mountain View Community Shuttle, which are subject to major daily delays due to the at-grade rail crossing.
City of Mountain View Priorities for the VTA Local Investment Plan May 26, 2026
We look forward to partnering with VTA to complete the design and construction of this long- awaited critical project for Mountain View. This $400 million project is 75% funded. SB 63 funds can help reduce the funding shortfall , provide local match funding, and make the project more competitive for grants and other funding sources.
• Fund Complete Streets Projects on Fixed Route Transit Corridors
Mountain View has planned significant improvements for corridors with fixed- route transit:
El Camino Real, Rengstorff Avenue, Shoreline Boulevard, San Antonio Road, Middlefield Road, California Avenue, Charleston Road, Whisman Road, and Grant Road. These projects will construct complete streets components, including signal upgrades to reduce transit delays, green streetscapes to improve the transit customer experience, and safety improvements to enhance first- and last-mile connections. These major project s represent a once- in-several- decades opportunity to green streets, enhance safety, and improve operations for Mountain View residents and transit customers.
We look forward to collaborating with VTA to deliver benefits for Mountain View’s residents and transit riders through the Local Investment Plan. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Kimbra McCarthy
City Manager
cc: Mountain View City Council
VTA Board of Directors
Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Jennifer Ng, Public Works Director, City of Mountain View Lauren Ledbetter, Transportation Manager, City of Mountain View Greg Richardson, Deputy General Manager, VTA
Sam Sargent, Director, Strategy and Transformation, VTA