Published Friday, May 14, 2004, in the San Francisco Chronicle

Speedy baby bullet trains ready to roll

By Christopher Heredia
Chronicle Staff Writer

Caltrain passengers' dreams of faster service between San Jose and
San Francisco will come to fruition June 7 with the launch of the
baby bullet trains.

The 10 trains each weekday will travel as fast as 79 mph and allow
riders to travel between the two cities in 57 minutes, shaving about
39 minutes off the previous fastest time. The one-way fare costs
$5.50 -- the same as for regular trains.

"We're ready, we're excited," said Chuck Harvey, chief operating
officer for Caltrain, which in 2002 approved the $110 million
construction project for the baby bullet trains. The addition of
the baby bullets will boost Caltrain's fleet to 86 trains.

"This new service is going to be very attractive for our existing
riders and could potentially draw people who have avoided public
transportation in favor of their cars," Harvey said.

Caltrain officials and a representative from a passenger advocacy
group urged people who use Caltrain or live or work near the train
tracks to be aware of safety as well as the new scheduling. The baby
bullets will not slow down when they pass through stations, or at
railroad crossings near commercial and residential districts. And for
the first time in two years, Caltrain will resume weekend service.
Although the bullets will not run on weekends, officials have warned
people to be aware of trains speeding by on Saturdays and Sundays.

"We are asking passengers and people who live and work near the
tracks to be vigilant about safety," said Robert Doty, manager of
rail operations for Caltrain. "Trains will be coming through on
weekends, which hasn't happened in a long time. And the baby bullets
will be coming through some stations very fast without stopping."

The take-home message, Doty said: Stand well back from the edge of
the platform.

In addition to the San Francisco and San Jose stations, the baby
bullet trains will stop at the Millbrae, Hillsdale, Palo Alto and
Mountain View stations. Caltrain will initially have 10 baby bullet
runs each weekday starting June 7: three northbound and two
southbound trains for morning commuters, then two northbound and
three southbound trains in the afternoon.

In an effort to serve reverse commuters, Caltrain officials said two
southbound baby bullets will also stop at San Francisco's 22nd Street
station weekday mornings and two northbound evening trains will stop
at the station on weekday evenings.

Engineers will begin testing the faster trains at full speed this
weekend and next, without passengers.

"We're using these days to build familiarity for the crews,
especially the engineers and the operators in the control centers,"
said Doty.

Caltrain will use this time to work out the kinks,
practicing "overtakes" of slower moving trains and arriving at
designated stations on schedule. Crews will also induce delays so
controllers can learn how to recover quickly.

"We're all working on getting our rhythm down," Doty said.

Caltrain has reorganized its scheduling to accommodate the express
service trains. Regular trains will run hourly on Saturdays and
Sundays.

To entice people to use the weekend trains, Caltrain is offering free
rides June 5, 6, 12 and 13. Regular fares will resume the following
weekend.

The new scheduling will require midday service to be reduced at seven
stations with lower ridership. Caltrain will switch from half-hour
service to hourly service at the 22nd Street, Bayshore, Hayward Park,
Broadway, South San Francisco, Atherton and Tamien stations.

Caltrain officials hope the addition of the baby bullet and
resumption of weekend service will boost ridership. Caltrain now
carries about 26,000 weekday riders, and before weekend service
stopped two years ago, carried 8,500 passengers on weekends.

Margaret Okuzumi, executive director of BayRail Alliance, a Peninsula
transit riders' advocacy group <http://bayrailalliance.org>, is
pleased with the resumption of weekend service.

"We think it's going to provide a huge benefit," said Okuzumi, who
has been riding Caltrain for more than six years. "The addition of
the baby bullets are going to mean we're going to have better
Caltrain service than we've ever had before.

"I think it will attract a lot of riders and be competitive with the
automobile, especially if you're traveling between San Jose and San
Francisco. My only criticism is that I wish it could have been a more
significant rollout -- one that didn't sacrifice some local service."


Caltrain info

For more information about the baby bullet service, visit Caltrain's
Web site at http://www.caltrain.com or call (800) 660-4287.


E-mail Christopher Heredia at cheredia@...