On Black Friday, we heard several reports of Caltrain customer confusion, with people who didn’t know that Caltrain was running a Saturday schedule. Â On Friday, BART and SamTrans were running regular weekday schedules.
Did you do any of your holiday visiting, errands and shopping via transit? Â I took Caltrain to a Thanksgiving dinner and carpooled home – I regularly find the early closing Sunday schedule for holidays to be a pain for holiday travel – do you? Share your holiday transit stories and schedule wishes in comments.Â
I rode the westbound Capitol Corridor early in the day Wednesday morning, and I am glad I got up early to ride on a much less crowded train. The trains had extra cars for the busiest travel day of the year. It’s much more pleasant to ride when there are plenty of empty seats. Like Caltrain, the Capitol Corridor was operating a weekend schedule on Fri. the 28th. A few times I have encountered the uncertainty about whether the Capitol Corridor was operating on a weekend or weekday schedule, and that information was not easy to find on their website. When any date is approaching when some transit customers may be uncertain about weekday versus holiday schedule, that is the most important information for a transit agency to display on the main page of its website.
Why not just replace Caltrain to SJ Diridon with a new BART line, only separated crossings are needed, no overhead wires etc. Have Diridon be the connection hub to HSR to NorCal and SoCal. The BART connector from SF to SJ would be as fast as a HSR. at a fraction of the cost, just new tracks and separated crossing, no impact on Peninsula cities. Could be implemented in a short time. My 2 pennies for a fabulous (real rapid transit) BART in our lifetime (I’m 70+)
Caltrain publicizes any schedule adjustments in advance through social media, news release, website (www.caltrain.com/holidays); station announcements and in its Caltrain Connection newsletter. Check out the fall issue for other upcoming holiday service schedules: http://www.caltrain.com/caltrainconnection.
Considering that it takes 31 minutes for BART to cover SF Powell to Millbrae, and that HSR will cover SF Transbay to San Jose in 40 minutes, BART will need to cover Millbrae to San Jose in just nine minutes. Do you think they can do it?
The other flaw in your plan is that grade separations (whether for BART or anything else) are the big ticket item that drives cost into the billions.
Darn. Back to the drawing board.
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Rita, given the reports, it might also be helpful to have visible signs at key stations.
I got the email about the Saturday schedule, so I used the Tamien shuttle on Friday (perfect!). How about using the pre-cold war era orange LED billboards for people who don’t subscribe to email/Twitter?
Are there even any technological reasons why Caltrain can’t operate like a rapid transit such as BART? A train every 15 minutes midday, evening, and weekends can’t be that hard, right? They certainly won’t have any after electrification is finished.
Yes! Electric Caltrain will be cheaper to run (electricity is cheaper than diesel). With level boarding, fewer staff per train might be required, freeing up staff for more frequent service.