If you have taken Caltrain in the last few years, during rush hour, for a Giants game, or maybe to Maker Faire, you know that it has been very crowded.
Caltrain ridership has more than doubled over the last decade, and it is the fastest growing transit service in the Bay Area. The trends driving Caltrain use are longterm and likely to continue. Many cities along the route are focusing development near the stations. 
Caltrain’s ridership is relatively young, with 55% under the age of 35, and younger people on average are preferring to drive less where choices are available. Cities in the area are adopting policies to help reduce traffic and relieve parking crunches with programs and incentives to drive less.
Double the ridership?
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group predicts that Caltrain will need to carry twice the ridership over the next decade to keep up. The corridor that Caltrain serves is a powerhouse of the US economy, generating 14% of California’s GDP and 25% of the state’s tax revenue.
So is there any way that Caltrain can keep up with the ridership growth? The answer is yes – and it will take support from community members to make it happen.
This year, Caltrain bought some used cars from Los Angeles Metrolink, which will add about 20% additional space. By 2020, Caltrain plans to go electric, which will enable faster, more frequent service, and add about 30% more capacity – these plans are mostly funded and well under way. Once Caltrain is electric, it will be possible to make the trains even longer to carry more passengers. Caltrain has plans to share the corridor with High Speed Rail, and the services can work together to provide even frequent service.
So what can we do to make this happen? There will be transportation funding ballot measures in the next few years. Voters will need to pay attention and ensure that Caltrain capacity is included in the projects that are funded. Cities on the corridor are working on plans for “grade separations” to improve safety, facilitate cross-town connections — and allow for more frequent service.
And if you don’t use Caltrain, but use the freeway, Caltrain riders are keeping your commute from being even worse – it would take 3 more lanes on the 101 to carry Caltrain’s passengers.
Friends of Caltrain is a nonprofit with over 4,000 participants on the Caltrain corridor from San Francisco through San Jose, with the goals of stable funding for Caltrain, a modernized system with frequent service, and policies supporting sustainable transportation in the corridor.
To learn more and participate, sign up for alerts on things that you can do to learn more and take action in the region and your own community, to support more room on Caltrain, and transit-supportive policies in the area.
(The signup link is here: http://org.salsalabs.com/o/741/t/10670/signUp.jsp?key=1730)
Questions? Send me a note at [email protected]
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Adina Levin is the co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of Caltrain, which is a nonprofit focused on sustainable transportation with over 4000 participants the Peninsula Corridor from San Jose through San Francisco. Prior to Friends of Caltrain, she spearheaded the Drive Less Challenge, a friendly social competition to reduce solo driving, co-founded Socialtext, an enterprise social software company, and served as senior director of product strategy for Vignette Corporation. She serves on the Caltrain Citizens’ Advisory Committee, the Menlo Park Transportation Commission, and Menlo Park General Plan Advisory Committee.
