(The following article by Justin Jouvenal was posted on the San Mateo County Times website on April 1.)
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Caltrain soon will pull the trigger on the “baby bullet.”
The much-anticipated express trains will begin zooming up and down the Peninsula in June after two years of work, $110 million, and some minor delays, officials said Wednesday.
It is the first time Caltrain has set a month for the debut, which was slated to happen this spring, but was pushed back by delays in installing a new train-signalling system.
The launch will bring some of the most dramatic changes to the rail line in its 140-year history. Baby bullet service will shave the commute time between San Francisco and San Jose
from 90 minutes to under an hour. At the same time, Caltrain also will bring back weekend service, increase the number of trains it runs to the highest level ever, and totally rework its entire schedule.
“Every single one of our trains will be affected,” said Jayme Kunz, a Caltrain spokeswoman.
Construction began on the baby bullet in July 2002 and is slated to wrap up in late April or early May. Caltrain will then inspect the work, familiarize its engineers with the new system, and set an exact date for the opening.
Baby-bullet trains will pass slower local service on four miles of new passing tracks. In addition, crews have rebuilt the Lawrence and Bayshore stations, reconstructed a bridge in South San Francisco and made other improvements as part of the project.
One of the central features is a new train-control system that will bring Caltrain into the 21st century. Train service will be coordinated from a central control room and track switches will be thrown remotely. Currently, engineers must flip track switches by hand — a low-tech holdover from the earliest days of the railroad.
Officials believe the baby-bullet service will be a shot in the arm for the railroad, which has seen ridership and revenues fall since the dot-com bust.
“When you can cut that much time off of a trip, people will look at it and take it,” said County Supervisor Jerry Hill. “But obviously, a lot depends on the state of the economy.”
The economy also has limited Caltrain’s budget and the amount of baby-bullet service the agency can provide. The express trains will make five round trips a weekday, but will not run on the weekend.
“Caltrain scheduled as much as they could under the budget they have,” said Margaret Okuzumi, executive director for rail advocates BayRail Alliance. “Of course we would like to see more baby bullets, but even under the schedule they might adopt, it’s questionable whether they can fund it.”
The Caltrain board of directors plans to adopt a new schedule for the baby-bullet trains and the resumption of weekend service at a meeting today. The process has been highly contentious.
Riders at low-ridership stations, such as Atherton, have complained that they would see less service under the two schedule options the board is considering.
Caltrain officials said the new schedules will result in an overall increase in service, but lightly used stations will see fewer trains. Maltbie said the total number of weekday trains will increase from 76 to 86, and Sunday service will double.
Trains have been shut down on the weekends since July 2002 so crews could work on the baby-bullet project.