The Bay Area CalTrain Experience
After a week of the Global Social Benefit Incubator, I needed a break. I needed an escape from thinking about sustainable international development and the trains of the San Francisco Bay Area called me. A calling perfect for my transit foamer fetish.
All Aboard CalTrainMy first commuter train ride was the CalTrain from Santa Clara University to the 22nd Street Station in San Francisco, a ninety-minute ride north.
This little trip started at the Santa Clara railroad station, a cute little building run by the South Bay Historical Railroad Society as a well stocked railroad museum. Complete with a full display of signals (the museum's specialty) and a room of model railroads, I was almost sad when the train came.
But not once I was on the train itself. There I found a joe-cool two tiered seating system, with wide benches and tables on the bottom floor and single seats on a second floor. And the seats were surprisingly comfortable, plush and soft, perfect for a siesta after a six-mile run earlier.
The only downside to my journey was its length. While Caltrain was cheap ($7.50) it was not fast. We stopped at every suburb between Santa Clara and San Francisco to pick up or drop off a few plebeians, and by the outskits of San Francisco, I was ready to exit.
Still, CalTrain is way better than driving Highway 101 up the coast.
Post Author:
wayan | 10:54 AM |
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The time required for Caltrain trips is indeed a substantial caveat, but Caltrain has done a remarkably good job at diversifying its schedule, with limited and express trains stacked up during peak times (the "Baby Bullet" trains only stop half a dozen times between SF and SJ) -- though local trains still dominate the weekends and the middle of the weekdays. Still, by Bay Area standards, this sort of creativity passes for innovation. BART, for instance, does not have the capacity to permit express service.
As you said though, it's a comfortable ride, and it definitely beats 101.
There's an interesting article in last month's Progressive Railroading (snippet online, I'll try and scan the article soon if I still have it) about CalTrain's growth and prospects for the future with a more 'transit' type of service.
James,
I was headed to a friend's house who lives a few blocks from the 22nd Street Station.
