Caltrain's Baby Bullet Service and Founder Honored

Caltrain’s highly successful Baby Bullet service and the legislator responsible for bringing it to life are being honored by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s regional transportation planning authority.

California State Senator Jackie Speier (D- San Francisco/San Mateo) received MTC’s John F. Foran Legislative Award for her role in securing $127 million in funding for Baby Bullet equipment and the Caltrain construction that made the service possible, while the Baby Bullet service received the Grand Award.

The idea for the Baby Bullet service came out of a brainstorming session with Caltrain’s top executives. The goal of bringing this unique express service online was to reduce congestion and modernize Caltrain service.

Already the new schedule has been so successful that Caltrain’s ridership has increased by more than ten percent over the previous year. “Senator Speier empowered our planners to think well beyond Caltrain’s traditional service and she fought to secure the funds necessary to make the vision a reality,” said Michael Scanlon, Caltrain’s CEO/general manager.

Scanlon added, “Over and over, the Bay Area’s residents name traffic as their top concern, we’re very fortunate to have a leader who is listening and working to improve our quality of life through projects like the Baby Bullet.”

Caltrain has seen such high demand for its new service that after just three months of operation, planners are already working with local cities to expand parking at some Baby Bullet stations.

The new service was made possible by Caltrain’s CTX construction project, which upgraded most of Caltrain’s rail and added bypass tracks in Brisbane and Sunnyvale and a central traffic control signal system the entire length of the rail corridor allowing Baby Bullet’s to overtake slower moving local and limited-stop trains.

Baby Bullet trains operate using new equipment purchased specifically for the service. The Bombardier cars offer café and regular passenger seating and tables for enjoying a quick snack or working on a laptop during your trip. The cars also feature large accessible restrooms and seat up to 142 passengers.

MTC honors Bay Area programs, organizations and individuals with their biennial awards. Other awards that are presented include the Doris W. Kahn Accessible Transportation Award, the David Tannehill Special Employee Award and a series of awards of merit. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the Bay Area.

9/22/04