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CalTrain Blog

CalTrain sort of works, but their system could use some improvements. I might add that the improvements are really stupid easy and obvious. I mean, if you conjure up mental images of what a train station is like, your pictures might reasonably be expected to include things like: signs saying what train is now on the platform, or is soon arriving, or announcements telling you that information.

• 8) The conductors are supposed to announce the stops. Sometimes, they don't. Or, sometimes the PA system is crappy and you can't hear them. Or, sometimes they get it wrong. I always get stressed out because I figure someone is going to miss their stop because of this, sooner or later. I appreciate the human touch, by why don't they just have a damned clear correct recording to play back instead? Just today, in 2005, some folks in front of me were wondering aloud things like, "What station are we at? Shouldn't they have better signs?" and ended up missing their stop. That's the American way of quality service, yessir.
• 7) If you aren't at the doors when they open, you stand a good chance of missing your stop. They don't warn you of this, and I've seen people get screwed several times! Then you are in real trouble because the trains run like maybe every hour, so if you've missed the train in the other direction you can't get back to the station you wanted!
• 6) In the older days, you were supposed to pay a surcharge of one dollar if you don't buy your ticket at an open ticket counter. Did they post big signs that say that anywhere? Did they regularly announce that on trains before you leave the station? (No, they did not.)
• 5) The brand new Mountain View and San Antonio stations did not have any posted schedules for at least several months. They spent god only knows how much to revamp the places and didn't once consider that maybe there should be some actual information posted.
• 4) They never mark express trains, other than at the San Francisco (and maybe the San Jose - I don't go there) station. They only announce that a given train is an express once you are already on it. There are no announcements made at the actual station, like, where the people would hear it in time for it to do them any good. Further, it would take very little effort to just put a bleedin' sign on the trains saying something really big and simple like "Express."
• 3) This lack of information is especially problematic when trains are late, and they have absolutely no distinguishing characteristics that would tell you what service it is. So you get on a train that arrives at the time your regular train would, only to discover that it is a late-running limited service that skips the stop you want.
• 2) Their attempts to get information out about special schedules are utterly pathetic. July 3rd 2000 was a reduced schedule. I only ever heard it announced once on trains in the previous weeks, and the conductor making the announcement did not even know what the reduced schedule actually was. I rode the trains that day and there were a significant number of regular riders who were complaining that they had not been given that information previously. Utterly lame.
• 1) They leave cars open that should not be, do not mark them as "closed" in any way, and they give the passengers a hard time about it!