(The following article by Justin Jouvenal was posted on the San Mateo County Times website on June 7.)
SAN MATEO, Calif. — After two years of construction, $110 million and numerous headaches for commuters, Caltrain will launch its much anticipated “baby bullet” express trains today.
The baby bullet promises something all too rare in an age when traffic congestion seems perpetual and the term “rush hour” is a gross understatement: a quicker commute.
The trains will shave a whopping 40 minutes off a Caltrain trip between San Francisco and San Jose. The baby bullets will make the run in just under an hour.
“I think (the baby bullet) is a significant leap, because now (Caltrain) will be competitive with the automobile,” said Margaret Okuzumi, executive director of the rail-advocacy group BayRail Alliance. “I think it will attract a lot of new riders to the train, especially with gas prices this high.”
The launch also brings an overhaul of Caltrain’s schedule, which will pump the number of trains running each day to the highest level ever. But it also mean less service for some stations that serve fewer riders.
Caltrain will add 10 baby bullet trains a day to its normal schedule of 76 trains. The schedule includes two southbound morning baby bullets leaving San Francisco and two north- bound evening baby bullets leaving San Jose to accommodate riders making a reverse commute.
The new timetable will feature a mix of express trains, limited-stop and local service. And for the first time, Caltrain will feature hourly service on Sundays, instead of every two hours. The schedule changes likely will take some getting used to — more than half of trains will skip stations.
During the week, 12 stations will see less service, including South San Francisco, Broadway in Burlingame and Hayward Park in San Mateo. On weekends, nine stations will see less service and no service will run to San Jose’s Tamien station.
“It’s essentially making an entirely new Caltrain. We threw out the old schedule and built from the ground up,” said Rita Haskin, a Caltrain spokeswoman.
Haskin said the new schedule was partly a product of a tight budget and riders’ requests to get up and down the line faster. Caltrain will reevaluate the schedule after six months and possibly revise it if it is not working for passengers.
While the baby bullet trains will transform the Peninsula commute, it is a misnomer to call them true bullet trains. The service will have a top speed of 79 mph, the same as the rail line’s other trains. The baby bullets cut the commute time by bypassing stations. They will run during morning and evening rush hour and stop at six of Caltrain’s 34 stations: San Francisco, Millbrae, Hillsdale in San Mateo, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose Diridon. Caltrain has built wheelchair ramps at baby bullet stations so handicapped riders can more easily board trains.
The skip-stop service will also mean new dangers for passengers and pedestrians who don’t obey safety rules. Trains will be zooming through stations at top speeds, running more frequently and may be traveling north on southbound tracks or vice-versa.
“If you refamiliarize yourself with basic safety behavior, you’ll be fine, but the system is not the same as last week,” Robert Doty, director of rail transportation for Caltrain.
Caltrain shut down its weekend service over the last two years to work on the baby bullet. The construction included installing four miles of passing tracks for the express trains, upgrading the Bayshore and Sunnyvale stations and modernizing the line’s signal and switching system.
Previously, Caltrain engineers had to flip switches by hand — the same way it was done since the earliest days of the railroad.
To repay commuters for their patience during the work, Caltrain offered free service over the weekend and will do so again starting Saturday.
Caltrain officials hope baby bullet service will attract new riders after several years of falling ridership because of the weak economy and the dot-com bust. State Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, carried a bill that provided funding for the baby bullet project in 2000.