Caltrain

Infobox Public transit
name = Caltrain


imagesize=193
locale = San Francisco to Gilroy, California
transit_type = Commuter rail
began_operation = 1987
system_length = 77.4 mi (125 km)
lines = 1
stations = 32
ridership = 36,993cite news
title = Caltrain Reaches Ridership Record
url = http://www.caltrain.org/news_2008_04_04_ridership_record.html
publisher = Caltrain
date = 2008-04-04
accessdate = 2008-07-04 ] (avg. weekday)
track_gauge = RailGauge|ussg (standard gauge)
operator = Amtrak

Caltrain (AAR reporting marks JPBX) is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. It is currently operated under contract by Amtrak and funded jointly by the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority through the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board. The northern terminus of the rail line is in San Francisco, at 4th and King streets; its southern terminus is in Gilroy. Trains operate out of San Francisco and San Jose on an approximately half-hourly basis every weekday, with more-frequent service provided during commute hours and for special events (such as a San Francisco Giants baseball game) and less-frequent service at night and on weekends and holidays. Service between San Jose and Gilroy is limited to three daily commute-hour round trips. Average weekday ridership in February 2008 was 36,993 persons.cite web|url=http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_ridership.html|title=Ridership Information|publisher=Caltrain|accessdate=2008-05-22]

As of 2006, Caltrain has 29 regular stops, one football-only stop (Stanford Stadium), and two weekend-only stops (Broadway and Atherton). Caltrain operates a mix of 98 local, limited, and express weekday trains, with 32 and 28 hourly local trains on Saturdays and Sundays, respectively.

History

* indicates those locomotives that have been christened by their namesake cities

Passenger cars

There are 93 bi-level gallery-type cars built by Nippon Sharyo in Caltrain's fleet, of which 66 are coaches and 27 are bike accessible cab control cars. Caltrans purchased the first 63 gallery cars in 1985 when it began subsidizing the commuter rail service. The other 30 were purchased by Caltrain in 2000, and the older cars were rebuilt by Nippon Sharyo around the same time. Each gallery car has one set of exit doors on each side of the car.

Caltrain purchased 17 Bombardier BiLevel Coaches in 2002, of which 10 are coaches, 5 are cab-bike cars, and 2 are cab-wheelchair cars. Some of the Bombardier BiLevel Coaches were bought from the Sounder Commuter Rail. Since the Bombardier cab-bike cars can only carry one half the bikes of a Nippon Sharyo car, Caltrain typically runs two cab-bike cars on high-demand trains, with one at the tail and second ahead of the locomotive. Caltrain purchased additional eight cars in 2008 to meet short-term passenger growth and to increase spare ratio. These Bombardier cars are mostly used on Baby Bullet express trains, but occasionally they can be spotted working on limited-stop and local trains.

Caltrain formerly used "Boise Budd" single-level cars it bought from Virginia Railway Express as Special-Event trains. These were sold after becoming obsolete. They are now in service on the Grand Canyon Railway.

Intermodal Connections

Regional Rail

Caltrain has direct connections to three regional rail services; Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) (with service to San Francisco, SFO, Oakland, Fremont, Richmond, Dublin, Concord, and Pittsburg.) at the Millbrae Intermodal Station, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor and Coast Starlight trains, as well as Altamont Commuter Express at San Jose's Diridon Station.

Bus/Light Rail

Caltrain is served by a number of local bus/rail systems. These system include the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). (Additionally, Golden Gate Transit of Marin and Sonoma Counties is within 20 minutes' walking distance, or a short Muni ride via the N or T lines, from Caltrain's northern terminus.)

In August 2005, as part of its Vasona light rail project, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority established its third transfer point with Caltrain at San Jose's central train station Diridon. In addition to many bus connections, VTA light rail service has two other Caltrain transfer points at San Jose's Tamien and at Mountain View. (Also, the Cottle light rail stop in southern San Jose is a mile from Caltrain's Blossom Hill station.)

The San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) has two light rail connections, the N Judah and T Third Street lines, at separate stops near the San Francisco 4th and King station. Muni intended to establish another light rail connection to the Bayshore station at Visitacion Valley in southern San Francisco for the T Third line, but this has been delayed indefinitely due to cost and design issues. The T Third opened on 2007-04-18 without the connection.

Airport

Caltrain also has connection to San Francisco International Airport via BART at the Millbrae Intermodal Station and to San Jose International Airport via VTA shuttle bus at the Santa Clara Station.

Regional Express Bus

Caltrain is also served by AC Transit from Hayward at the Hillsdale station (Line M), Dumbarton Express from Union City at Palo Alto, Highway 17 Express bus from Santa Cruz and Monterey-Salinas Transit from Monterey at San Jose, as well as San Benito County Express from Hollister at Gilroy.

Bus Shuttle

Caltrain sponsors many shuttle routes serving local employers on the Peninsula and the Silicon Valley. Shuttle connections via the Marguerite are available to Stanford University at the Palo Alto and California Avenue stations and San José State University at the San Jose Station.

Bicycle access

Caltrain was one of the first commuter rail services to add bicycle capacity to its trains. On the older gallery Nippon Sharyo fleet, every cab car is designed to carry 32 bicycles. On the other hand, most cab cars on the newer Bombardier fleet are designed to carry 16 bicycles. Consequently, bike capacity on trains can range from 16 to 64 bicycles (though 64 is not the norm as the second 32-bicycle gallery-type car is actually a spare taking the place of a regular trailer car in for service or repair. But since servicings are, of course, a regular occurrence it is a fairly common, though not predictable, sight). [http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_bike_FAQs.html] However, folding bicycles are not restricted and can be carried on any car when folded.

All bicycle cars are marked by a yellow bike decal on the outside. Onboard the bicycle cars, the cyclists are required to secure their bicycle to the rack using the bungee cord provided. Each rack can accommodate four bicycles. Because the bikes are stacked together against the racks, most riders place a destination tag on their bicycles to optimize placement and minimize shuffling. [ [http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_bikes2.html Caltrain Bike] ] [ [http://groups.google.com/group/ba.bicycles/browse_thread/thread/732eae045fb4948b/e2b091849b86d12d?lnk=gst&q=&rnum=4&hl=en#e2b091849b86d12d Nov-Dec 1995 San Francisco Bicycle Coalition The Tubular Times - from Google Groups] ]

The variation on bicycle capacity between trainsets has generated criticisms from the bicycling community, as cyclists are denied boarding when a train reaches its bicycle capacity. The Baby Bullet service, favored by many cyclists, is routinely operated with lower-bike capacity Bombardier trainsets and cyclists may be forced to wait for slower trains operated with higher-capacity gallery cars, or seek alternate transportation, such as driving. [cite news
url = http://www.mv-voice.com/morgue/2004/2004_07_16.caltrain.shtml
title = Bicyclists can't get on board
publisher = Mountain View Voice
date = 2004-07-16]

Due to equipment rotation and maintenance concerns, Caltrain says it cannot dedicate higher-bike capacity trainsets on trains with high bike demand. Caltrain has also rejected removing seats to increase bicycle capacity because some trains are operated at seated capacitycite web|url=http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_bike_faqs.html|title=Caltrain Bike FAQ|publisher=Caltrain|accessdate=2008-04-09] and the seat removal would take space from other fare-paying passengers.

To provide an alternative to bringing bicycles onboard the trains, Caltrain has installed bicycle lockers at most stations, and constructed a new bicycle station at the San Francisco station. A bicycle station was open at the Palo Alto station from April 1999 to October 2004, and reopened in February 2007. [cite news
url = http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/article/2007-2-23-02-23-07-pa-bike-station
title = A safe place for bikes
publisher = Palo Alto Daily News
date = 2007-02-23
author = Kristina Peterson
accessdate = 2007-02-25] In early 2008, the CalTrain sponsored [http://www.warmplanetbikes.com/ Warm Planet] bicycle station opened at the 4th and Townsend terminus.

On the Bombardier equipment, due to concerns of crowding the exit/entry doors, the northernmost door is designated the bike entry door, and the rear is to exit.

ee also

* Southern Pacific Railroad
* Southern Pacific Peninsula Commute
* South Bay Historical Railroad Society

References

External links

* [http://www.caltrain.com/ Caltrain Official Site]
* [http://www.caltrain.com/timetable.html Caltrain Schedule (official)]
* [http://thenexttrain.com/at/caltrain/ Caltrain Schedule (alternative)]
* [http://www.smcta.org/ San Mateo County Transportation Authority] – Contains Information on Dumbarton Rail Extension
* [http://bayrailalliance.org/ BayRail Alliance (Caltrain advocacy group)]
* [http://www.tsgmultimedia.com/common/product_info.php?part_number=10010 Caltrain 2005 (Video Documentary about Caltrain)]
* [http://www.askmar.com/Railroad/rail.html Articles on the history of the San Francisco Peninsula Commuter Service]
* [http://timetableme.sourceforge.net TimeTable Mobile] Open-source train schedule/timetable for PDA and cellphones