Caltrain offers first look at all-electric schedules

SAN FRANCISCO — A month before Stadler electric, bilevel multiple-unit trainsets are set to completely transform Caltrain’s 51-mile corridor from downtown San Francisco to San Jose, Calif., commuters are getting their first look at specifics of the schedules to be implemented beginning Sept. 21.

Some electric trainsets began operating earlier this month [see “News photos: Electrified service begins …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 13, 2024], but for now they are running on the existing schedules based on the much slower acceleration of diesel-powered trains.

Though that motive power will continue to be used initially on four weekday 26-mile, rush-hour-only shuttle round trips between Gilroy, Calif., and connection with the electrics at San Jose’s Diridon Station, travel-time improvements and frequency adjustments on the electrified portion are significant.

Caltrain’s website now has both current schedules and those effective Sept. 21 for both weekday and weekend schedules:

The current weekday schedule is here; electric weekday is here. Current weekend is here; electric weekend is here.

Among the significant changes:

— Weekend departures more than doubled: A total of 16 current all-stop San Jose-San Francisco round trips will morph into 33 when the new trainsets take over. This dramatic increase, driven by the lower incremental operating cost of electric propulsion, is designed to boost Caltrain’s ability to compete for all leisure trips with half-hourly service.

— Shortened travel times: The typical 20 intermediate-stop local from San Jose’s Diridon station to downtown San Francisco will take 1 hour, 17 minutes compared to the current 1 hour, 39 minutes. However, once-hourly trains that take about 1 hour, 15 minutes by dropping different sets of nine stops will be eliminated most of the day. Travel times for limited-stop rush-hour trains that have been retained have been cut to 1 hour, 9 minutes. The table below compares three current northbound trains and their counterparts under the new schedule.

— No more “Baby Bullet” overtakes: Even faster are seven daily “Express” round-trips making only nine intermediate stops that reduce San Jose-San Francisco travel times to 59 minutes. This compares to 1 hour, 6 minutes for six current “Baby Bullet” round trips making five stops. They achieve those timings by carefully-choreographed overtakes of a preceding local at stations where passing tracks allow a local to wait. The new timetable reveals that this practice has been eliminated. Thus, the Baby Bullet designation is being retired.

— Memory schedules keyed to class of train: With a smattering of Bullets, limited stop, and local trains operating throughout every weekday and serving different stations, travelers currently need a scorecard to plan trips. Once the electrics take over, though, stop times will be consistent at each station for the three classes. For example at Palo Alto, weekday northbound “Express” trains stop at :43 past the hour and “Limited” trains stop at :12 past the hour in the morning and evening rush hours, while “Local” trains always stop at :26 and :56 after the hour all day. For some reason, however, northbound times on the weekend are 1 minute earlier at most stations.

The corridor’s electrification was substantially aided by federal investment designed to also accommodate California High Speed Rail Authority trains to and from Los Angeles. With construction progress for that venture facing stiff political headwinds, billions of dollars over what was originally budgeted, and woefully behind its original completion date, its trains won’t show up here anytime soon. However, the Authority announced Friday that it will be holding four “open house” information sessions from Gilroy to San Francisco in September and October. The first two, in San Mateo and San Jose, are set to occur days before the new Caltrain electrified schedules debut.