For the second year in a row, Mayor Linda Koelling has led a successful charge to preserve the city’s Connections Shuttle.
The City Council voted 3-2 on Monday night to maintain the shuttle at its current level of service for one more year but require riders to pay an undetermined fare, perhaps $1 per ride. The city will use its share of county Measure M funds to pay for all but $10,000 of the operating cost of the shuttle.
Based on discussions at previous meetings, the council was prepared Monday to eliminate the Blue Line, one of two shuttles that serve Foster City, and implement a $1 charge for people riding the other shuttle, the Red Line.
But Koelling persuaded Vice Mayor Art Kiesel and Councilwoman Pam Frisella to dedicate all $99,000 the city will receive next fiscal year from November’s passage of Measure M, which added a $10 fee for all vehicles registered in San Mateo County, to the shuttle system and spare the Blue Line. The city will instead implement a fare for both lines.
“I’m excited that we are able to keep the shuttles in Foster City,” Koelling said Tuesday. “It was the responsible thing to do on behalf of our citizens.”
About 20 people showed up Monday to urge the council to keep the Blue Line, many of them Chinese-Americans who don’t speak English. Kathy Berger, a Foster City resident who helped organize the Blue Line riders’ campaign on behalf of the shuttle, said the line serves about 80 passengers a day.
“It is the only public transportation for about a third of the city,” said Berger, adding that many residents, particularly multigenerational Chinese-American families, use the shuttle to take their children to school, the library and the recreation center.
The Blue Line runs between Sea Cloud Park and Bridgepointe Shopping Center in San Mateo, just across Foster City’s northwestern boundary. The Red Line runs between Bridgepointe and Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo.
The city considered scrapping the entire shuttle system last year, but Koelling convinced Kiesel and Frisella in June to keep it going at a reduced cost by eliminating one of two Red Line shuttles.
Councilmen Rick Wykoff and Charlie Bronitsky, who last year voted against keeping the shuttle, once again found themselves on the losing side of the argument. Wykoff said the council, facing a structural deficit that stands at roughly $2.8 million, is “kicking the can down the road” by putting off more-stringent cuts. He called the plan to preserve the shuttle irresponsible.
“My job is to address the issues and make decisions now,” Wykoff told his colleagues Tuesday. “I apparently am the only person on the council that’s willing to say no.”
