Beginning Oct. 5, Caltrain will adjust its timetable to improve reliability and accommodate upcoming construction work along the rail corridor. It also will increase the cost of tickets purchased at station machines.
“Ridership continues to grow at an extraordinary pace,” said Chuck Harvey, deputy CEO of operations, engineering and construction. “Trains are stopping longer at each station due to the growing number of customers attempting to board. Schedule reliability is just as important as trip length and these changes will bring current travel times in line with the scheduled arrival times.”
The changes also reflect adjustments to accommodate construction work on a project to replace four aging rail bridges in San Mateo, a project due to begin later this year. The adjusted times allow construction crews on longer windows of time to work between midday trains.
Changes include:
- Adding up to two minutes to all weekday and weekend trains because rail traffic through the San Mateo bridges construction zone will be restricted to 30 mph Shifting times on some midday trains by up to 10 minutes to eliminate train meets in the San Mateo construction zone
- Adding time to a handful of trains to improve on-time performance
- Adding a 22nd Street stop to five trains
- Adding one minute at some stations to allow trains to maintain their spacing for overtakes on the north and south end of the system.
- Adjustments to special event service schedules (Giants and Levi’s Stadium) due to regular schedule changes
Fare Adjustments
The rail agency also is increasing the cost of purchasing tickets at stations for one way tickets and day passes. Customers purchasing one-way tickets can avoid the 25 cent increase by using Clipper cards for their travel rather than purchasing tickets at the station ticket machines. Day passes will increase by 50 cents. While not available on Clipper, customers making a round trip can save $1 by using Clipper. The cost of Monthly passes and 8-ride tickets will remain the same. The new fare chart is available at www.caltrain.com/fares.
Effective Dec. 21, the Youth fare category will include 18 year olds. This will allow those traveling to school or work to continue to purchase the discount Monthly Pass, priced at half the cost of a regular Monthly. The age change is part of a regional effort to have a consistent designation for youth.
