In 2016, Amazon opened a fulfillment center in an industrial park in Shakopee, Minnesota, about 16 miles southwest of Minneapolis. The idea that corporations should chip in for bus routes used primarily by their own employees is not confined to Santa Clara County. “This program was a solution to VTA making the decision to cut several crucial routes that had previously served VMware and had gained popular ridership among many Santa Clara County-based employees,” said Michael Thacker, director of corporate public relations at VMware. VMware, headquartered at the research park, worked with the park to fund the four express routes, although it’s currently not a sponsor. According to a VTA spokesperson, 75% of the costs to run these routes are covered by the agency, while 25% of the costs are covered by Stanford Research Park, which is affiliated with the university of the same name. VTA presently operates four express routes, which cost the agency $2.4 million annually. But it decided to do something different: ask companies who want the service to pay them directly. Had VTA cut all express routes, it would have had some upset riders. It’s very expensive for transit agencies to operate specialized routes to far-flung destinations, compared to running a more generalized service in a compact and concentrated area. That pattern generally holds true across the country. Compared to its all-day service, the express routes that connect workers to their workplaces all over Silicon Valley were expensive to operate, had low ridership, and made less money. In 2019, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority was facing a budget crunch that would require it to pare back much of its express service.

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