CalTrain commuting

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As of this week, CalTrain has instituted new service: it features "baby bullet" trains that skip most of the stops on the route (though they don't actually go at a higher top speed than other trains), as well as new more frequent express trains that skip some of the stops.

As one of my co-workers predicted, though, the fact that more (and shorter-travel-time) trains stop at fewer stops means that more people are coming to the few stations where the express trains and baby bullets do stop.

So here's how my morning commute went on Monday:

Leave house at 8:30 (half an hour earlier than I did on the old schedule) to provide a little extra time for adapting to new schedule.

Arrive at train station around 8:45.

Drive around parking lot looking for parking space until 8:50. (About a third of the lot is usually empty, but on Monday there wasn't a single open space.)

Decide to park across the street. Discover that all on-street parking within several blocks of the station is either 2-hour parking or 5-hour parking. Do quick calculation; determine need for 10-hour parking.

Finally find non-time-limited space about 8:57. Park. Leap out of car. Begin running. (Train is due at 8:58.)

Run the three blocks or so to the station. Arrive just as train pulls out.

Wait 25+ minutes for next train (which isn't an express). Call CalTrain to express unhappiness about lack of parking (especially since I bought a monthly parking pass that now looks like it may be worthless). Get no sympathy at all, and a statement that since this is the first day, of course it's extra-crowded, and that I can solve the problem by getting to the station earlier.

Arrive work around 11:00.

So on the first day of the extra-fast train service, it took me two and a half hours to get to work instead of the usual two. I can't say I'm impressed so far.

This morning (Tuesday), parking lot still full, but this time I left home earlier, and didn't waste as much time looking for parking; after I saw the lot was full, I drove straight to the nonrestricted street parking. Of course, today the express train was late. (But, to be fair, only about four minutes late; no surprise, second day of a new schedule.)

2 Responses to “CalTrain commuting”

  1. Jean

    There must be an anomaly in the space-time continuum, because your commute is somehow merging with mine.

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  2. Kevin Standlee

    From which station are you riding? As I recall, monthly passes are good at any Caltrain station, so you could, I suppose, go to one of the less-crowded parking lots and ride a local to the next station up the line that has an express, although that’s obviously not optimal.

    If you’re riding from Mountain View on a monthly Caltrain pass, another possiblity is to go park at the highly-underutilized lot at Evelyn Avenue and then ride VTA light rail one stop up to Mountain View.

    In fact, I don’t think there’s any optimal solution. Caltrain stations for the most part are never going to be Automated Parking Fortresses like BART — their stations are mostly in existing built-up downtown areas where the only way to provide more parking would be to destroy the surrounding businesses and homes. (This combination is probably why Caltrain has a surprisingly high percentage of its ridership from walk-in traffic.)

    Kevin Standlee, Train-Brain at Large
    (Who used to be on the Caltrain Citizens’ Advisory Committee when he lived in Santa Clara County)

    reply

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