San Juan’s Parking Fees for Amtrak Riders

From the commuter’s point of view, I must state that this proposed parking fee is a poor choice on the part of the city of San Juan Capistrano. The city has built a parking building to relieve the parking woes of the downtown area. This is all well and good, except we find out that we are expected to park in the new building and pay for it. We train riders were not asked if we wanted a new place to park, nor were we asked if we wanted to subsidize the city’s new building.

I believe that the fair solution is to leave things as they are and have the city utilize its new parking building for theater patrons and shoppers. If the city must force the passengers to utilize this new building, then the least it could do is offer a parking pass costing in the neighborhood of $5 per month for a minimum of six months, increasing only annually, based on the cost of living.

Oceanside, Santa Ana and Fullerton do not charge for parking at their stations. Does San Juan Capistrano want to be the bad guy and start the pay-for-parking routine in addition to the fares that passengers are paying?

RANDALL L. SMITH

Laguna Beach