San Francisco is considering big changes in how Caltrain and High Speed Rail will serve the City.  Also, in the next days, Caltrain is releasing new data that provides a window into the slow phasing out of at-grade crossings on the Peninsula corridor.

Go to the Friends of Caltrain for the most current actions to save Caltrain.

With the new Levi’s Stadium scheduled to open in 2014 and to host the Super Bowl in 2016, the demand for transit to serve that location will increase significantly. Although the new stadium is located along a VTA light rail line, as well as Altamont Corridor Express and Capitol Corridor, many fans coming from San Francisco will consider taking Caltrain to connect with light rail or shuttle buses to the stadium (although Caltrain doesn’t advertise it, many 49ers fans from the South Bay take Caltrain to Bayshore and walk to Candlestick, and many riders take Caltrain to Stanford Stadium for Stanford Football). However there is a better proposal by having Caltrain to serve the Great America Station directly by running special shuttle trains from San Jose (and possibly Gilroy) to Great America. Riders from San Francisco can transfer at Santa Clara Station for a short train ride.

South Bay rail map by BayRail Alliance

Why use Great America station?

With a direct Caltrain connection to the stadium at Great America, it would provide extra capacity and complement the VTA light rail system, which is expected to be overwhelmed with riders coming from different directions. The light rail station closest to the stadium only has two tracks and a center platform. On the other hand, the San Diego Trolley, which serves Qualcomm Stadium, has extra turnback tracks and platforms, and is grade separated through the stadium area.

In Mountain View, the light rail’s speed and capacity is constrained with a single track section and a large number of tight curves through Mountain View and North Sunnyvale. The average speed is below 20 mph. While VTA has a plan to double track the section, it would not address the other constraints along the line. If all riders have to transfer in Mountain View, many riders may not be able to board the next light rail train due to smaller train size. Shuttle buses are not very effective because they may get stuck in traffic on the way to and especially from the stadium after the game.

The Caltrain station in Santa Clara was recently rebuilt and is capable to facilitate cross platform transfers. The Great America station would need upgrades such as double tracking and a platform extension to handle extra trains. The Capitol Corridor has plans to double track the section between Great America and Santa Clara for many years. Such plans to improve the rail corridor could be accelerated to provide additional capacity for the Super Bowl as well as for the future needs of the Capitol Corridor and ACE.

On another note, if the capacity is enhanced in the Union Pacific owned corridor, when Caltrain is electrified, diesel trains from Gilroy could operate to and terminate at Great America instead of San Jose or continuing north to San Francisco. This would allow Gilroy riders better access to Silicon Valley jobs while making the electrified Caltrain corridor operate more reliably. Gilroy riders to San Francisco can transfer in San Jose.

With Super Bowl being a reality in 2016, it is time to take a look at how to provide more transit options. While a single one-day event to justify transit upgrades may seem to be an overkill, other cities have used other similar events such as the Olympics to justify far larger transit expansions. Also most of those upgrades would provide long-term benefits by allowing other rail lines such as Capitol Corridor and ACE to expand and improve service.

From the last Caltrain and Samtrans board meetings, some slow progress on wifi and airport connections, but no solutions yet.

At the last Caltrain board meeting, the director’s report included an update on Caltrain’s efforts to add wifi to the trains.  Caltrain has hired a marketing consultant, Singer and Associates, to solicit a corporate sponsor for the service.  Singer is investigating seven potential partners. Caltrain is looking to example of the MBTA in the Boston, which has implemented wifi on its commuter trains since 2010, and is currently seeking corporate sponsorship to upgrade the service.

The good news is that the capital equipment to run wifi is included in the proposed Capital Equipment budget for 2014. The bad news is that wifi will be cut if Caltrain does not get full $4.8 million per partner agency that it is requesting.

At the $3.6 million level, Caltrain would also reduce its train car maintenance by $500,000, at a time when the aging cars are breaking down, causing reliability problems.

Wifi to be deferred if Caltrain gets less capital funding from partners

On the SFO connection topic, the bad news is that SamTrans has made the decision to truncate the KX service at Redwood City, getting rid of a low-cost, reasonably time-efficient, and little-known service to the airport for riders in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The KX has low ridership, and SamTrans was not convinced by the encouragement of the services’ true fans that they should try to market the hidden gem of a service before deciding to kill it for riders south of Redwood City.

On the bright side, SamTrans has lifted a longstanding luggage ban on the KX from San Francisco.   Luggage has been banned on the KX  since the 70s, following a lawsuit from an airport shuttle company that opposed public sector competition. The shuttle company hasn’t served the airport since 2006, and SamTrans finally lifted the ban as a result of customer complaints.

More good news is that new SamTrans senior planner Douglas Kim told Green Caltrain that he has heard customer feedback loud and clear, and strongly agrees that transit to the airport is woefully inadequate, and SamTrans is looking for new connection solutions.   SamTrans staff is focused in the near term on implementing the service overhaul approved by the board, and then will look again at how to improve the airport connection.    We’ll give them a few months, and ask again.

One possible option might be a new bus route from San Bruno to the airport, added so close to the SamTrans Service Plan approval deadline that SamTrans didn’t have proposed timing for it yet.  The route would start at San Bruno BART; the new Caltrain station will be less than a mile away. Depending on timing, that could be helpful for airport travellers.  According to Google Maps, the airport is 3 miles and less than 10 minutes by car, so a one-hop bus ride could work.

Another possible option would be a Millbrae   shuttle, which would need funding.  How much extra would you be willing to pay for a Millbrae shuttle?  For this blogger, transit to the airport is competing with SuperShuttle at about $20.  So the current $9 Caltrain-BART-BART dance is cheaper than the alternative. A $4 shuttle add-on, which would be the same price as the BART dance and less schedule hassle, would feel like a good deal to me.   What do you think?

Caltrain riders are the least satisfied with the Clipper card, according to a new customer satisfaction study for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.  A December 2012 phone survey of 800 registered users showed that Clipper customers overall are more satisfied than the previous year, with 88% reporting that they are satisfied with the service, and 62% reporting that they are very satisfied.  However, Caltrain riders were the least positive of the 4 major agencies, with 71% satisfied, among whom 47% were very satisfied.  Among Caltrain riders, 19% were neutral, and 11% were dissatisfied, according to a slice of the survey by agency requested by Green Caltrain.

                 Clipper Customer Satisfaction Survey Results

Survey conducted for MTC, December, 2012

What do you think, Caltrain riders? What’s working for you with Clipper, and what’s not working?

One area for improvement that emerges from the survey data is transfers.  Among all Clipper customers, 56% use more than one transit agency at least occasionally, indicating that there is a large customer base for transfers.  An MTC staffer looked at the data and told Green Caltrain that approximately 23% of respondents transfer between agencies during a typical trip, and the remainder transfer more occasionally.

One of the potential benefits of using a common smart card is integrated transfers, but when Clipper was set up originally, the participating agencies were unable to agree on a shared system.

Bay Area transfer options have declined in the last year with the demise of the BART plus program, a non-Clipper service that provided free bus transfers to BART. That service was largely used by customers for repeated free bus rides, so it didn’t serve the intended purpose.

Muni leader Ed Reiskin has also recently called for better transfer integration.  Now that Clipper is well established as a payment tool, is it time to revisit the promise of better integration across services?

On Bike to Work Day, Nathan Dushman of the SF2G bike commute club led a group of riders from the Millbrae Caltrain and BART station to Oracle’s breakfast spread along the Bay Trail, helping some new riders get practice taking their bikes on the train.

photo credit: Andrew Boone

The new riders have a lot of company: the number of Caltrain riders who use a bicycle for their first and last miles is growing at an even faster clip than Caltrain’s rapidly growing overall ridership.   The most dramatic spikes are in Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose Diridon stations, which have seen increases of 23 to 24 percent.     The growth in bike ridership is in line with dramatic growth in bike commuting in Palo Alto and Mountain View.

These increases follow Caltrain’s decision in 2011 to support two bike cars on every train, substantially decreasing the number of “bike bumps” where riders can’t board the train because the bike car is full.  During the count period, Caltrain carried 24,550 bicycles over a 5 day period, with 59 riders bumped; a bump rate down to .2%.

In the Bay Area, bicycling is a useful way to make the first and last connection – according to research from SPUR, 80% of jobs in the Bay Area are within 3 miles of regional transit.

The delayed regional bike share program , with a pilot planned to go live in August, may help alleviate crowding in the bike car, once riders are able to pick up a bike at the station and drop it off at their destination. But with only 750 bikes to start in San Francisco, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose, it will be quite a while before riders can expect bike share bikes to be easily available.