The Green Caltrain blog is sponsored by BayRail Alliance, an all-volunteer non-profit organization supporting green rail transit in the Bay Area. This blog and BayRail have no affiliation with Caltrain.Weekend Baby Bullet starts on January 1
Despite fare increases and weekday service reductions, Caltrain has announced that it will begin running Baby Bullet trains on weekends on a pilot basis for three months. Weekend express service has been sought after by many train riders and Caltrain is looking for ways to generate more revenue similar to the success of the weekday Baby Bullet trains introduced several years ago.
As Caltrain supporters, we applaud Caltrain for listening to riders and introducing the weekend express service. As successful as current weekend local service is, we believe that weekend express service will make the trains even more competitive with automobiles, especially among those who don’t ride the trains during weekday commute hours.
Hopefully the guide below will enhance your transit experience and make the weekend service more useful.
| Weekend express station stop | Places to visit | Transit connections (weekend) |
| 4th & King | AT&T Park | Muni 30 – Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach, Fisherman’s Wharf, Marina, Exploratorium
Muni 45 – Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach, Union Street Muni 47 – Civic Center, Van Ness Ave, Fisherman’s Wharf Muni K/T – Market Street, The Castro |
| Millbrae | Downtown Millbrae on Broadway | BART (with direct service to SFO) Parking: Free parking at the garage on the east side of the station. |
| San Mateo | Downtown San Mateo | Parking: $3 |
| Hillsdale | Hillsdale Shopping Center | Parking: $3 |
| Redwood City | Downtown Redwood City | Parking: $3 (free at the surface lot north of Broadway) |
| Palo Alto | Downtown Palo Alto
Stanford University |
Parking: $3 |
| Mountain View | Downtown Mountain View | Parking: $3 |
| Sunnyvale | Downtown Sunnyvale | Parking: $3 |
| San Jose Diridon | HP Pavilion
Downtown San Jose |
VTA Light Rail – Downtown San Jose, Tech Museum, Convention Center, Japantown, Downtown Campbell
VTA 181 – Milpitas Great Mall, Fremont Highway 17 Express – Santa Cruz Parking: $3 |
It’s unfortunate the baby bullet schedule, constrained by crew shifts, is of such limited use. The early train is too late and the late train is too early. I don’t expect many new customers will be drawn to Caltrain by this, although perhaps the trains will draw passengers from concurrent trains, demonstrating the demand for express trains on weekends.