Some San Jose State commuter students said they appreciate having Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) light rail service back to full capacity after service lines fully reopened on Sept. 18.
The closure came after a VTA employee shot and killed 10 coworkers including himself in a mass shooting in the vicinity of Younger Avenue and San Pedro Street, according to previous Spartan Daily reporting.
Economics freshman Miguel De La Torre-Hernandez said his commute from the Santa Teresa station in South San Jose has drastically improved with VTA’s light rail service return.
“It used to take me two hours to get to campus with the bus,” De La Torre-Hernandez said. “It's half as long with the train so that is just much, much better time-efficient wise and just less stress on me in general.”
He said now he commutes on the northbound route of the VTA Blue Line to the Paseo De Antonio Station, the nearest light rail station to SJSU’s main campus.
VTA’s light rail service gradually reopened its stations starting Aug. 29, according to an Aug. 28 VTA news report.
The Paseo De Antonio Station between South First and Second streets near SJSU’s main campus didn’t fully reopen until Sept. 18, according to a Sept. 16 VTA news report.
SJSU students and employees have unlimited rides on VTA light rail and buses with the SmartPass Clipper Card, according to the SJSU Transportation Solutions website.
The SmartPass program includes free transportation on VTA buses and light rail for eligible SJSU students, according to its website.
Students must be enrolled in either hybrid or in-person classes for the Fall 2021 semester, have a mailing address in Santa Clara County or live in on-campus housing to be eligible for the program, according to the SJSU SmartPass website.
SJSU Transportation Solutions manager Tiffany Rodriguez said the amount of students who picked up SmartPasses this semester dropped by 41% compared to the Fall 2019 semester.
“In comparison to [the] Fall 2019 [semester], we had close to 5,700 students pick up a SmartPass Clipper card,” Rodriguez said. “This semester, now that students are coming back [for in-person classes], we had about 3,300 students pick up a SmartPass Clipper Card, which I think is huge, you know, from totally not being on campus.”
Fall is the first semester SJSU students have the choice to go back on-campus since on-campus classes were taken fully online from March 2020 to August, according to a December 2020 university blog post by President Mary Papazian.
Rodriguez said the coronavirus pandemic affected individuals’ comfortability using public transportation.
“With the whole COVID-19 situation, I think that reflects that people are starting to get comfortable to utilize the transportation, obviously [because of] the vaccinations and things like that so I would say that that's pretty good,” she said.
Rodriguez said 181,505 total boardings were scanned on the clipper reader in September 2019, a month in a normal academic semester.
But in fall, 52,092 cards have been scanned as of September, she said.
However, the data doesn’t reflect the semester’s entire ridership because the semester hasn’t ended, Rodriguez said.
“But I mean, [lower numbers] could be related to a lot of factors . . . that also includes the light rail that wasn't running and fully in service so people might have been choosing to drive to campus during those months,” she said. “So I can't 100% say that [the data] is a true reflection of what the ridership would be looking like maybe in October or November.”
Biochemistry freshman Tervel Redansky said he appreciates the convenience of the light rail’s reopening but is occasionally concerned for his safety.
“[The light rail] is on time, it's good to use but safety- I mean some guy was just here in [a] blue shirt staring at everybody,” Redansky said while waiting at the Paseo De Antonio Station. “There's always those people. You've got your crackheads and then you've got some people who are dirty, you know, I've seen people covered in ticks before on the train.”
He said despite his concerns, he thinks the VTA light rail service is efficient and gets him to class on time.
“I save a lot of money on gas that I was spending before and, overall, it's a little unsafe but if you're careful, it's okay,” Redansky said.
