Timing

[kevin_standlee]

To my astonishment, despite having had only about four hours' sleep, I woke up just before the alarm, even though that was only 4 AM California time. Even more astonishing to me was that I was able to get fed, showered, and dressed within an hour.

Cheryl is going into Chicago today, so I'll drop her off at the train station on my way to my office. The Metra commuter rail system here has some express inbound trains that put Caltrain's "Baby Bullet" expresses in a bad light. Imagine a Caltrain run that originating at San Jose, stopping at Santa Clara and Mountain View, then running non-stop to San Francisco 3rd & King. But OTOH, Cheryl doesn't necessarily want or need to catch that express train, because, particularly as it is now snowing, having an extra 40-plus minutes on the train, warm and dry, with a book she's enjoying reading, isn't such a bad thing.

Comments

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

having an extra 40-plus minutes on the train, warm and dry, with a book she's enjoying reading, isn't such a bad thing

Having extra time on the train is rarely a bad thing!

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

You know it makes me make the sad face when you go on about better transit elsewhere. *sniffffffle*

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Sorry! Actually, If I haven't said it, I really am impressed with how much Caltrain has been able to do under the constraints placed upon it. The Metra BNSF Aurora Line has an infrastructure advantage over Caltrain however: triple track. Not just the two stretches of quad track that Caltrain has (and I'm not complaining about that being there, because it's a good thing to have), but a speedway downtown that can handle super-expresses in a way that Caltrain would probably not be able to manage.

Besides, Caltrain has something that Chicago does not and that most areas would love to have: bi-directional peak-hour traffic. I know that historically, Caltrain's predecesor (Southern Pacific) ran it's commute service to take stockbrokers to San Francisco in the morning and home in the evenings.

And the "Baby Bullet" service really is a good compromise that has had great impacts on improved regional rail service. It frosts me to see those narrow-minded local politicians on the Peninsula complain that "you should stop your train in my city more often," when the effect of doing so would be to damage the entire system. What these pinheads really mean (even if they don't say it) is "My city is more important than every other city on the Peninsula, and you should run express trains serving only my pet stop and only those other stops to which my constituents want to travel." It's particularly ironic when there are calls to reopen Atherton when Atherton consistently and steadfastly opposes any sort of infrastructure improvement that would disturb their little enclave.

Sorry, am I ranting? I guess I am. Anyway, for all that I will criticize Caltrain from time to time, the system is much better than it was during the three years I was a CAC member. Not that anything I said did any good -- I know as well as anyone that the Citizens Advisory Committees are mostly irrelevant.