Published Tuesday, October 28, 2003, in The Cardinal Inquirer (Stanford)

Caltrain overhauls timetable to make way for Baby Bullet

By Elizabeth White

When Caltrain's new Baby Bullet system starts up this spring, it
won't be the only change in service for commuters. Because of the
new express trains, Caltrain has also had to overhaul its timetable
for local-service and limited-stop lines.

"The driving factor behind the new timetable was to make our
services faster and easier for commuters to use," said Jayme Maltbie
Kunz, Caltrain's public information officer. "We want to improve
connection times with other services."

Kunz said the changes are substantial and will include a shorter
service day on Sunday and a new weekend service schedule, but she
added the goal is to get commuters where they are going faster.
Caltrain will hold six public meetings in the next couple of weeks
to get comments from the community on the changes before it puts the
final schedule into effect.

The Baby Bullet service will include up to 10 trains, each making
stops in San Francisco, Millbrae, Hillsdale, Palo Alto, Mountain
View and San Jose,. The Baby Bullet will cut the travel time between
San Francisco and San Jose to less than an hour, according to
Caltrain.

"Many people will be pleased because they will get where they are
going faster," Kunz said. "Other people will no doubt be
frustrated."

In planning the new timetable, Kunz said Caltrain tried to keep in
mind key connections with Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Jose light
rail and Muni services. Caltrain also consulted the Bay Rail
Alliance, a grassroots commuter-advocacy group that promotes quality
transportation in the Bay Area, the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority and BART. The Bay Rail Alliance met with
Caltrain last week to preview the schedule.

"It seems like they've done some innovative thinking," said Margaret
Okuzumi, executive director of the Bay Rail Alliance. "I think
basically it opens up more possibilities for riders, but we
definitely suggested some things."

Among those suggestions were increasing services during peak travel
hours and resolving potential conflicts that arise when two trains
arrive simultaneously at a station. Kunz said kinks between local
trains and express trains are being worked out.

The Bay Rail Alliance was not the only group with suggestions for
the new system. Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority wanted to
ensure that the Baby Bullet will serve the Mountain View station and
coordinate with the Tamien light rail station outside of downtown
San Jose.

"We have been working with the Caltrain staff to make sure those
connections work with our riders," said Kat Mereigh, VTA
spokeswoman. "We are constantly refining our own schedule, so when
Caltrain has their service locked in then we'll look at ours and
refine it" in response.

Although BART has also made no changes to its timetables to
accommodate the proposed Caltrain schedule, Mike Healy, BART's media
and public affairs director, said his organization often works with
Caltrain on scheduling issues.

"We certainly want to make it as easy as possible for passengers to
make transitions," Healy said. "Of course we hope that the schedules
coincide to such an extent to reduce waiting time for passengers."

Caltrain offers service north, form Gilroy to San Francisco and BART
goes from San Francisco as far south as Millbrae, where passengers
can transfer to Caltrain to continue south. The average distance per
trip for Caltrain riders is 20 miles, Okuzumi said.

"(The Baby Bullet) will be a really fast way to get to the city,"
she said. "(Caltrain) did a reasonably good job at coming up with a
first draft."

The first public meeting on the Caltrain timetable is Tuesday at
6:30 p.m. at East Palo Alto's Municipal Service Building, 2415
University Ave. <http://www.Caltrain.com> has listings for the next
five meetings, the last of which is Nov. 4, and Caltrain will take
public comments via e-mail (timetablecomments@...) or
telephone (1-800-660-4287) through Nov. 7. The Caltrain Web site
also includes the proposed timetable.


Contact Elizabeth white at ewhite@...