Caltrain Customer Survey Shows Railroad Gets Solid Marks

The average Caltrain rider is a 37-year-old college graduate who uses a monthly pass to commute to work at least four days a week, and earns more than $100,000 per year. This information comes from Caltrain’s customer survey of more than 4,200 riders.

Conducted during the first three weeks of October 2007, the survey had an outstanding 82 percent response rate. Caltrain staff spent the last several months examining the survey data in order to better understand who rides the train, and how the agency can better serve its customers.

Among other findings:

• Weekday riders rated Caltrain favorably with a 4.02 out of a possible 5.0 for satisfaction, and weekend riders rated Caltrain with a 4.13.
• 57 percent of riders are male and 43 percent are female
• 74 percent of riders take the train to work, while 12 percent use it for social outings and 9 percent commute to school on the train.
• 30 percent of riders drive a car to the train station, while 28 percent walk to the station and 24 percent take transit.

When asked why they ride the train, 38 percent said that they take Caltrain to avoid traffic, while 28 percent said that it was to save money. A quarter of those surveyed said that they take the train to help the environment, which jumped from just 10 percent in 2003 when the last comprehensive survey was conducted.

Since the last survey, Caltrain has seen an increase of average weekday ridership by nearly 50 percent to a historic level of nearly 11 million riders during Fiscal Year 2007. Ridership for the current fiscal year is already higher than the same time last year, and is expected to surpass the 12 million mark.

Caltrain is operated by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which is a partnership between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the San Mateo County Transit District. Caltrain operates 96 weekday trains between San Francisco and San Jose, with commute-hour service to Gilroy. Beginning on March 3, Caltrain will expand to 98 weekday trains.

Download the summary of survey results HERE (PDF - 57KB).

02/08/2008 - crd
Media Contact: Christine Dunn, 650.508.7927