Caltrain Board to Hold Timetable Public Hearing

The Caltrain Board of Directors will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Feb. 5 at
10 a.m. to receive public comment on Caltrain's revised proposed service levels, which would include Baby Bullet service and the reinstatement of weekend service. The new timetable would take effect this spring, subject to the rail agency being able to bring its budget into balance.

The public hearing will be held at Caltrain headquarters, 1250 San Carlos Ave. in San Carlos.

The draft proposal constitutes a complete restructuring of the current schedule and an introduction of 10 trains that will operate on Baby Bullet express schedules, despite the fact that operating subsidies for the Caltrain service have not increased in each of the last four fiscal years.

Timetable Proposal

Caltrain issued an initial draft proposal in October 2003 and solicited public comments on it. The just-released final proposal incorporates many of the comments received from the public and includes one weekday and three weekend options.

In response to the initial round of public comment, Caltrain made schedule adjustments, which include adding reverse peak-hour 22nd Street Caltrain Station Baby Bullet service, in addition to the previously announced San Francisco, Millbrae, Hillsdale, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose stops.

The proposal also includes a third weekend option, which would offer hourly train service to all Caltrain stations that enjoyed service before construction necessitated a weekend service shutdown, but would truncate all trains at San Jose Diridon instead of operating a limited number of trains to the Tamien Caltrain Station.

Ridership under the new timetable will be monitored closely and presented back to the board following a six-month demonstration period.

Review and Comment

Copies of the proposed timetable will be available on station information boards, at libraries in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, at Caltrain headquarters or by calling Caltrain to request a copy.

The public can comment on the proposal at the public hearing or by sending written comments to timetablecomments@caltrain.com or to the Caltrain Board Secretary, 1250 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos, CA, 94070. Comments, which are due by 5 p.m., Feb. 4, also may be phoned in to Caltrain at 1.800.660.4287 (or for hearing-impaired only 650.508.6448).