CC Rail Mail – March 12, 2010

Linsey Ettlin CC Rail Mail & Newsletters

Capitol Corridor News – March 12, 2010

1. Message to Riders
2. Fare Increase March 30, 2010
3. National Train Day Golden Star Award
4. Passenger Communication Survey- last chance to provide feedback!

**********************************************************************
Message to Riders
**********************************************************************
Read the latest Message to Riders from David Kutrosky, Capitol
Corridor’s Managing Director.

View Message

**********************************************************************
2% Fare Increase March 30, 2010
**********************************************************************
To maintain our current service level, effective March 30, 2010, all
ticket prices will go up 2% for city pairs between Sacramento and San
Jose. This modest fare increase helps us meet our revenue and farebox
operating ratio projections for this fiscal year without cutting
service. The Capitol Corridor train service depends on two sources of
operating revenue: passenger fares and annually allocated state funds.
The poor economy and the “Furlough Fridays” that are imposed on state
government workers continue to contribute to an overall ridership
reduction of 9%. Given the state’s dire financial situation, it
became clear that our regular, small fare increases are required to
maintain Capitol Corridor’s service levels.

Please know that we tried to lessen the blow to your wallets as much
as we could. We cancelled the November 2009 fare increase and
postponed and lowered this adjustment, which was initially planned to
be a 3% increase effective February 2010.

View the new fares, effective March 30, 2010 on the pull-down menu on the Fares and Tickets page.

**********************************************************************
National Train Day Golden STAR Award
**********************************************************************
On May 10, 1869, in Promontory Summit, Utah, the “golden spike” was
driven into the final tie that joined 1,776 miles of the Central
Pacific and Union Pacific railways, ceremonially creating the nation’s
first transcontinental railroad. To commemorate that auspicious
occasion, the second Saturday in May has been designated as “National
Train Day.” The third annual National Train Day will be held May 8,
2010.

As part of the celebration, representatives from Amtrak, the Capitol
Corridor Joint Powers Authority, and Caltrans created California’s
Golden State Advocate of Rail (STAR) award to honor passenger rail
advocates from California and help build awareness about National
Train Day throughout the state. Former honorees include Doras Briggs
(2008) and Art Lloyd (2009). The award will be presented at one of
the National Train Day events in California on May 8.

We invite you to submit a nominee for this prestigious honor. Please
feel free to forward the nominating form to others who might be
interested.

The deadline for submission is April 1, 2010.

View the Golden STAR Award nomination form

**********************************************************************
Passenger Communications Survey – last chance to provide feedback!
**********************************************************************
CCJPA has received many phone calls and e-mails from you recently
expressing your frustration with passenger communications (or lack
thereof).

In order to help prioritize the communication services we hope to
bring to you, we’d like your feedback on the types of notifications
you feel would be most useful in getting pertinent service changes to
you in a timely manner.

If you have not already filled out the survey, please take a moment to
do so as we’ll stop collecting responses on March 19, 2010.

Please take a few moments to complete our short survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3DR7V2C