38 Facts About Caltrain

1.

Caltrain is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley).

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2.

Caltrain has 28 regular stops, one limited-service weekday-only stop, one weekend-only stop (Broadway), and one football-only stop (Stanford).

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3.

Caltrain is governed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board which consists of agencies from the three counties served by Caltrain: Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo.

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4.

Caltrain'storically served by diesel locomotives, Caltrain is electrifying 51 miles of its route between 4th and King and Tamien.

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5.

In June 2003, a passenger connection for the Bay Area Rapid Transit and Caltrain systems opened at Millbrae station just south of the San Francisco International Airport.

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6.

In 2006, Caltrain announced that wireless internet access would be available on trains at no additional charge, by the end of 2007.

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7.

Caltrain invested more than $1 million in researching and testing WiFi in 2006.

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8.

Caltrain announced on August 19, 2011 a staff recommendation to sign a five-year, $62.

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9.

In June 2004, Caltrain finished its two-year CTX project for a new express service called the Baby Bullet.

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10.

In May 2005 Caltrain started a series of fare increases and schedule changes in response to a projected budget shortfall.

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11.

On January 1, 2011, Caltrain cut four midday trains but upgraded four weekend trains to Baby Bullet service as a pilot program.

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12.

Caltrain began operation with a new schedule that exceeds pre-pandemic service on August 30, 2021; there are 104 trains operated per weekday, including reinstated Baby Bullet service.

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13.

However, the plans for an electrified Caltrain were put in jeopardy in February 2017 by the Trump administration when US Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao decided to indefinitely delay granting the federal funding for the Caltrain electrification project that had been approved by the Obama administration.

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14.

The official grant was finally signed on May 23, and Caltrain broke ground for the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project on July 21, 2017 in a ceremony attended by local and state officials at the Millbrae station.

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15.

In December 2018, it was reported that Caltrain was again behind schedule in installing PTC for the rail corridor, and had requested a two-year extension.

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16.

In June 2021, Caltrain announced the start of revenue service with electric multiple units would be delayed to late 2024.

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17.

Caltrain has been chosen to provide commuter rail service on a to-be-rebuilt Dumbarton Rail Corridor across the San Francisco Bay between the Peninsula and Alameda County in the East Bay.

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18.

Caltrain was approached by the Transportation Agency for Monterey County to extend service south of Gilroy into Monterey County.

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19.

In 2009, Caltrain requested that TAMC approach other train operators.

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20.

Caltrain eliminated sales of the 8-ride ticket as of October 1, 2017; existing 8-ride tickets would be honored through the end of October.

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21.

Fares for Caltrain service are based on the number of zones traveled, which is considered to be the number of zones "touched" between the origin and destination.

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22.

In 2018, Caltrain rolled out a mobile app allowing riders to purchase fares from Android and iOS smartphones.

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23.

Caltrain moved to a more streamlined process of issuing citations, effective February 1, 2018.

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24.

Since 1985, Caltrain has used the following locomotives, which are almost all powered by diesel engines:.

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25.

Caltrain leased a number of Amtrak F40PH's in 1998 and 1999 while Caltrain's F40PH-2's were being overhauled.

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26.

Currently, Caltrain trains consist of one locomotive and a five or six-car consist.

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27.

Caltrain has 93 Nippon Sharyo bi-level Gallery-type cars and 41 Bombardier BiLevel Coaches in revenue service as of 2017.

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28.

Caltrain purchased additional eight cars in 2008 to meet short-term passenger growth and to increase spare ratio.

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29.

In November 2016, Caltrain rolled out six-car gallery sets for certain trains to further relieve overcrowding; the longer trains are intended to be temporary measures to increase capacity until more frequent service can be achieved with electrification.

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30.

Caltrain purchased 16 used Bombardier BiLevel Coaches from Metrolink in 2014 to cope with increasing ridership by lengthening certain Bombardier sets from five to six cars.

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31.

Caltrain bought 14 remanufactured Budd Rail Diesel Car single-level cars from Virginia Railway Express around 2000 for use on Special-Event trains.

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32.

In December 2018, Caltrain was reportedly carrying 65, 000 passengers a day, and expected to have 240, 000 daily riders in 2040.

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33.

Caltrain has several cars used for track maintenance, such as JPBX 505, a track geometry car.

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34.

Caltrain has direct connections to three regional rail services; Bay Area Rapid Transit (with service to San Francisco, SFO, Oakland, Fremont, Richmond, Dublin, Concord, and Pittsburg) at Millbrae, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor and Coast Starlight trains, as well as the Altamont Corridor Express at San Jose Diridon station and Santa Clara's Santa Clara and Great America stations.

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35.

Caltrain is served by AC Transit from Hayward at the Hillsdale station and at Palo Alto station (Line U).

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36.

Caltrain was one of the first commuter rail services to add bicycle capacity to its trains, inaugurating bicycle service in 1992 by allowing four bikes on certain trains.

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37.

In early 2008, Caltrain sponsored Warm Planet bicycle station opened at the 4th and Townsend terminus.

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38.

However, in early 2009 Caltrain announced that it would be expanding bicycle capacity by 8 spots by removing some seats in the bike cars, bringing bike capacity to 40 bikes on gallery cars and 24 bikes on Bombardier cars.

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