Santa Cruz Metro

The Key to Transit in Santa Cruz County

The Second of three articles on the future of transportation in Santa Cruz County

By Noel Smith

Most county traffic travels East and West on the Highway 1 corridor (paralleled by the rail corridor described in last month’s article) between Watsonville and Santa Cruz and/or North and South on Highway 17 between Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and then over the summit to Silicon Valley. In order for any mass transit system, such as rail, to be successful using the Santa Cruz-Watsonville corridor in serving the transit needs of the public, there must be a transit feeder element. That is why our county’s bus system, the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District is needed to make mass transit work.

Mass Transit and the Metro

The ten train stations proposed for a mass transit system between Watsonville and Santa Cruz need local access to its potential ridership. There isn’t enough available property adjacent to most of the stations for a “Park & Ride” type of service. That leaves it up to the Metro buses to act as a feeder system to the nearest rail station for the public.

However, rail mass transit is at least ten-fifteen years away from being implemented. Until then, the Metro will have to act as both our local and long distance means of public transit. Alex Clifford is the new (One year in office) CEO/General Manager of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District. His job is to make the Metro relevant to the transportation needs of the public and to make the public aware that the Metro is a viable alternative when planning their daily travels.

Metro Buses

Another area of concern for the Metro is the buses themselves. To replace a bus costs about $500,000 which is usually paid for through federal grants. However, as equipment costs keep rising, increases in transit funding have been stuck in the neutral of congressional continuing resolutions now for several years. This means that the average age of the Metro’s bus fleet keeps growing making them more susceptible to breakdown and without the improvements in technology that are necessary for a modern transit system.

Clifford said that the environmental requirements for diesel engines keep getting more complex and expensive while the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) “Clean Air Buses” don’t have the reliability or longevity of diesel buses.

The newest zero emissions bus technology now becoming available are autonomous (Self Powered) electric buses. The range of this new generation of transit buses is about 200 miles without recharge. But there are also ways to quick-charge the bus while it is sitting at a transit center. A test of an electric bus on the Highway 17 Express route round trip showed that with regenerative braking, it had 68% of a full charge left before recharging. The purchase cost of these new autonomous electric buses is more than fuel powered buses but reductions in the operational costs are expected to more than make up the difference during its operational lifetime.

Local and Commute Travel

“Our challenge,” said Clifford, “Is to act both as a neighborhood feeder for our riders to local retail and commercial centers, to Cabrillo and UCSC, and to our transit centers. We also must provide commuter service both within the county and to Santa Clara County.” Clifford pointed out that the very successful “Highway 17 Express” is a multi-agency funded operation that includes the Metro, Cal-Train, Amtrak, AMBAG, and the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (SCVTA).

The difficulty with using the freeway as a commute corridor for buses is that when traffic is stopped, so are the buses. However, Clifford said that the Metro and the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission are looking at the ‘Bus on Shoulder’ (BOS) system. This would allow transit buses to operate on the shoulders of selected sections of freeways during periods of congestion in order to bypass traffic and maintain transit schedules. The Bus on Shoulder system is a low-cost approach that can provide immediate benefits to improve transit and commuter travel during moderate to heavy degrees of freeway congestion.

Renovating Metro Transit Centers

Metro is planning to renovate both its Santa Cruz and Watsonville Transit Centers. The Watsonville location will be expanded to handle eight buses at the center and provide more amenities for its riders. The Santa Cruz Transit Center will be reconfigured to include more retail area, a community room, and residential units. Metro is now considering coordinating the Center’s design and construction with a neighboring property redevelopment, which could provide cost and time to build reductions for the project.

Planning for the Future

With its new management and planning staff, Santa Cruz Metro may be ready to become the visible travel alternative to the automobile that this county has needed. But the challenge to local transportation is whether it is improving our roads and highways, modernizing the Metro, or constructing a new mass transit rail system, they all take money; a major investment by our community to get our county out of its physical and political transportation gridlock in order to build for the future.

Next Month: Roads and Highways and Building for the Future