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M elissa Meslo
From: Nora Pimentel
Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 8:50 AM
To: Melissa Meslo
Cc: Deon Sailes
Subject: FW: Putting in touch re: Via Shuttle : Item B 13 -Council meeting 02/08/2022 Good morning Melissa
Please add this as PMM for item 6.B
From: Deanna Santana <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 7:36 AM
To: Nora Pimentel <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Putting in touch re: Via Shuttle : Item B 13 -Council meeting 02/08/2022 For post agenda material.
From: Raj Chahal <RChahal@SantaClaraCA.~ov>
Sent: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 11:30 AM
To: Deanna Santana <DSantana@SantaClaraCA.~ov>
Cc: Sudhanshu Jain <SJain@SantaClaraCA.~ov>; Karen Hardy <KHardy@SantaClaraCA.~ov> Subject: Fw: Putting in touch re: Via Shuttle : Item B 13 -Council meeting 02/08/2022 Good morning Deanna,
Can you please share the below email thread with full council as soon as possible before the meeting today.
This is in regard to shuttle service in Santa Clara, which I have been advocating for long.
Thanks,
Raj Chahal
Councilmember District 2
City of Santa Clara
1500 Warburton Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95050
From: Chris Corrao <[email protected]~>
Sent: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 10:40 AM
To: Raj Chahal <RChahal@SantaClaraCA.~ov>; Raj Chahal <ralchahal@~mail.com> Cc: Jim Throop <[email protected]~>; David Stillman <[email protected]~>; Darcy Paul <[email protected]~>; 1 IP4ST' 11AEETINCa MA7ERIA~,
Jimmy Tan, P.E. <[email protected]~>
Subject: RE: Putting in touch re: Via Shuttle
Good morning Councilmember Chahal. I have included some responses to your questions in blue text below:
Good Morning Chris,
Thanks for the update. I would like to find out the following:
A: Annual current budget for the service being provided by Via in Cupertino Our pilot program cost Cupertino $1.75 million, the annual cost is approximately $1.1M. This cost is expected to grow over time, due to the incorporation of EV's and rising labor costs.
B: Some more details about anticipated 50% grant -who is providing grant and is is from a measure fund? The grant is a California State Transportation Agency grant (CaISTA) called the Transit &Intercity Rail Capital Program. Although primarily aimed at rail modernization and capital projects, it also funds microtransit projects such as Via that can support rail ridership. Funding comes from the State's Greenhouse Gas reduction fund. More information is available here: https://calsta.ca.~ov/subject-areas/transit-intercity-rail-capital-pros.
The grant requires the use of EV's.
C: Any idea of savings of expanding the service under Cupertino program vs Santa Clara starting a service on their own ? I am sure there will be some savings as we can piggy back on all the ground work done by Cupertino.
Yes, there are significant efficiencies by expanding our service versus starting a new service. Several hundred thousand dollars in planning and start-up fees would be avoided. In addition, an expansion would require almost no Santa Clara staff time, whereas a separate service would require approximately .5 FTE or more.
Also, aside from financial costs alone, Cupertino has secured safe overnight vehicle parking, EV charging facilities, and other considerations that would support services in Sunnyvale, San Jose and Santa Clara.
Cupertino has heavily in marketing and social media outreach, coordination with schools, Mid-Peninsula open space, the business community, and other constituent groups laying the groundwork for a successful regional transit program. In absence of a grant such as this, a Santa Clara program that is of similar scale as Cupertino's could expect to spend $1.1 million per year, or perhaps more due to rising costs. The grant, if awarded, would enable Santa Clara to benefit from these services for approximately $1691< in the first year, increasing each year over a five year period and landing at $526,000 in the 5th year. If continued after five years the cost would remain constant, with increases only as needed to cover rising costs. The local match can be paid with local funds or other grant funds.
D: How many FTE are you using for the service in Cupertino ? No full time positions are dedicated to Via-Cupertino service. The program is managed entirely by Via and overseen by me, the project involves approximately .5 FTE to manage. This is one area that could benefit Santa Clara significantly, because we do not anticipate Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, or San Jose to require additional staff for this program.
E: Rough numbers of riders using the service since inception ? As of yesterday, 16,708 trips have been made on Via-Cupertino since it's launch in October 2019. This includes a year-long period that service was paused due to COVID-19. The service re-launched in October 2021. Shortly we can share the 2/15 staff report which includes more ridership statistics since launch.
F: Would like to know bit more details about your discussion with Santa Clara staff on this topic.
A Santa Clara Transportation Planner, Jonathan Yee, participated in a meeting with Via, Cupertino, and San Jose to discuss the CaISTA grant opportunity and expressed that the Santa Clara Council had been reluctant to
fund shuttle services. He expressed interest in the service but felt that it would be difficult for the City to be able to commit to funding any matching funds for the grant on such short notice. The grant application deadline is March 3, 2022. Jonathan expressed that he would share information about this grant to a developer group in Santa Clara that is working on these types of transportation projects in Santa Clara.
If it is convenient, we can have a phone call on this. My cell phone is 408-690-3219 and I am available from now till noon or so.
would be happy to discuss further. I will have our final staff report ready to share for the 2/15 Cupertino Council meeting shortly. I will share that as soon as it is available. My mobile is (323) 208-1131, please feel free to call at your convenience. Please text before calling as I often screen for telemarketing calls. Thank you! Chris Corrao
Senior Transit &Transportation Planner
Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards,
Raj Chahal
Councilmember District 2
City of Santa Clara
1500 Warburton Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95050
Chris Corrao
Senior Transit &Transportation Planner
Public Works
[email protected]
(408) 777-3174
C UPERTINO ~
From: Chris Corrao <[email protected]~>
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 1:58 PM
To: Darcy Paul <[email protected]~>; Raj Chahal <RChahal@SantaClaraCA.~ov> Cc: Jim Throop <[email protected]~>; David Stillman <[email protected]~> Subject: RE: Putting in touch re: Via Shuttle
Thank you for this email Mayor Paul! We would absolutely love to collaborate with City of Santa Clara on Via. So many of our riders asl< for connections to Santa Clara Caltrain (and Amtrak), among other destinations like Valleyfair mall, etc.
Councilmember Chahal, we are bringing an item to the Cupertino Council for discussion on 2/15 to discuss a grant opportunity that could potentially cover 50% of the cost ofVia-Cupertino, including an expansion into surrounding communities also. I met with staff from several neighboring cities, including Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and San lose to discuss amulti-jurisdictional grant application led by Cupertino. Unfortunately the City of Santa Clara staff I met with was not very receptive to the idea, and we were told that shuttle transportation had been deleted to a development
group in Santa Clara. If there is another staff member i should reach out to please let me Know and I would be happy to discuss more.
Even if this particular grant opportunity does not get awarded, we are very interested in starting a conversation about collaborating to address our shared goals of reducing traffic congestion, greenhouse gasses, and providing a great social service for our communities.
Regards,
Chris
Chris Corrao
Senior Transit &Transportation Planner
Public Works
[email protected]
(408) 777-3174
C UPERTINO ~'"~' ~
From: Darcy Paul <[email protected]~>
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 1:31 PM
To: rchahalCc@santaclaraca.~ov; Chris Corrao <[email protected]~> Cc: Jim Throop <[email protected]~>
Subject: Putting in touch re: Via Shuttle
Thanks for reaching out yesterday and expressing an interest in Cupertino's Via Shuttle program. I find the notion that you expressed of a possible collaboration between the City of Santa Clara and the City of Cupertino for this program quite interesting and worthy of exploration.
Cru~is,
Councilmember Chahal of the City of Santa Clara is interested in knowing more about our Via Shuttle program.
Perhaps you have inet previously and I'm providing a re-introduction. Pm of the opinion that a potential partnership with Santa Clara is a great idea and worthy of exploring especially given the fact that they have their own electric utility and from what Councilmembei• Chahal tells me, a good amount of car-charging stations that we could, for example, potentially utilize when we electrify our fleet. This could well help speed up our transition to electrification. Iappreciate any information and materials that you can provide to Councilmember Chahal as he approaches Santa Clara's Council meeting tomorrow where, to my understanding, there is an opportunity to bring up this topic.
I'm also cc'ing our City Manager Jim Throop to keep him in the loop.
Thar~ics,
Darcy
Darcy Paul
Mayor
City Council
[email protected]
(408) 777-3195
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