At Caltrain Local Policymaker Working Group, talking about future service levels and infrastructure to get there...
CM Wolbach - I don't see how at-grade crossings are compatible with significantly higher levels of Caltrain service frequency @corywolbach
"Best practice - making well-timed, coordinated transfers, including timing and the user experience, creating more of a seamless network"
"Best practice, clock-face schedules"
"Best Practice: Better all day service" - this reflects a lot of the comments we've been getting, not just a work trip market. ((But, we've also just been talking about building 40+ grade separations, need work windows))
Cities with TOD planning want a level of service planning that will provide a level of certainty about how much service will be provided by new people living and working near the train
If we're not a 4-track service, some of our decisions about service levels for locations will be baked into concrete
tradeoffs between speed and number of station stops
CM Bonilla asks about potential service at Hayward Park station, where there's new infill development and more being planned
CM Siegel - we're all being encouraged to do TOD, and some of us might be required - how do we coordinate your planning with our TOD planning
CM O'Connell - Brisbane - asks when it will be known where service will be provided (since they are considering development near the station, and have a ballot measure to accept or reject it)
CM Hurt of Belmont wants to see service levels allowing everyday travel, and doesn't want smaller cities like Belmont from being locked out of everyday travel
Jiminez - I don't use Caltrain that often, is there a single fare that helps me use Caltrain, BART and VTA? Is that Clipper? A. The media are coordinated, but the fares aren't yet, and that is something we can encourage. @seamlessbayarea
CM Jiminez - does electrification south of Tamien depend on UP? A. That's the High Speed Rail plan; if negotiations don't succeed we'll look at plans B
CM Beach - Burlingame - all of our cities are growing, please pay attention to those plans for growth
CM Beach - please explain to use what the tradeoffs we'll get for passing tracks, for example local service in Burlingame - because all of us want as much service as possible
Caltrain market today - Caltrain ridership is clustered at top 8 stations, the ones that get the most service
Caltrain captures ~10% of peak travel and ~2% of off-peak travel
q. would we see transfers fo/from HSR? a. yes
Matsumoto - we have 17,000 jobs coming online in SSF - will Caltrain want to capture those commuters?
CM Beach - are some of the stations with lower ridership affected by high Caltrain prices for low-income riders. CM Masur - also, Caltrain's fare structure disincents short trips
Siegel - Apple shuttle picks up in Mountain View even though it's longer and slower because MV gets the service
((thanks to Caltrain for calculating this. fwiw I've been asking for this for a lot time))
"Ridership really drops off in the middle of the day - and freeway usage doesn't, and BART usage doesn't - this data suggests that Caltrain is missing ridership opportunity, which is something comments have been telling us for a long time"
Using regional travel demand model, which is conservative on land use, we looked at aggressive service, 10 or 16 trains per direction per hour, as an all-day schedule. The model said we'd get ~250,000 people per day, up from ~65,000 today.
If Caltrain offered service with frequency like BART, that would give Caltrain ridership like BART's in terms of riders per unit of concrete and steel
CM Beach - could there be capacity on the line to deliver that level of service? q - at 2 tracks, that might not be possible. CM Bonilla - that would require grade seps, right? A. yes
A. It would require infrastructure beyond 2 tracks.
Wolbach - Finding a way to deliver max service should be a goal of the service plan. We're planning land use, we need to know and want to work with you. @corywolbach
CM Siegel - we should have more service not just on peak but off peak so for example restaurant workers could get to work
Beech - you've made a compelling case that service drives ridership. The shocking thing is how little of the market share that Caltrain currently captures, and the opportunity to get people out of automobiles
Stanford partners are helping us build a financial model for service, with costs and benefits (including hopefully non-financial benefits as well)
yup, direct benefits, access to jobs, user benefits in travel time, public health and environmental benefits, and land value
a public comment believes that passing tracks and stations would be helpful
Cory Wolbach wants the GoPass bulk discounts to serve TMAs with low-income workers at small companies.
CM Holober wonders whether there will be farebox revenue to support 250K riders
CM Smith asks about the relationship between ridership and parking/kiss-n'ride
CM Siegel talks about their plans to do a transit connection to North Bayshore and hoping to extend to Cupertino
CM Hurt - wants another cut-thru of their berm to get people into and out of Belmont - maybe one day Belmont will have a downtown with more businesses and housing with opportunities for icnreased service
CM Masur - we've got a lot of buildings in the queue focusing on Caltrain, we want Caltrain to work closely with city staff to help us as we're growing at a rapid rate
CM O'Connell (Brisbane) - I want a guarantee that we get service
CM Watanabe - Santa Clara is the other side of Lawrence, and there's a lot of housing being built. And the potential for 1600 homes near Santa Clara station; Santa Clara University, Avaya
Kathy Watanabe - we should get more service because we are also getting BART running parallel to Caltrain (!)
Mayor Bonilla - this makes me much more hopeful about our ability to reach our climate goals in not that long period of time
Next presentation - Caltrain has strung its first wires on San Bruno - has anyone seen the wires yet?
CM Siegel - is there a way to have a credible schedule on the weekend, given the construction - A. we'll have to monitor it closely ((I kinda think the answer is no))
Roland Lebrun - it's a wire, but it's not a catenary wire yet. and the location of the wire will lead to arcing. I sent a letter to John Funghi.
Susan Gygi notes that it's fleet week this weekend, the first weekend of tunnel closures where 22nd and 4th/King won't have service til spring. Tone of voice. "Good luck people"
Boris Lipkin talks about "net zero energy stations" - um, does that include station access? I'm gonna comment on that, remind me not to say that parking garages with solar panels are greenwashing
Drew expresses concern that High Speed Rail might have trouble reaching 2:40 because trains need to slow down in populated areas. Roland says that in Europe they are building millions and millions of trees.
Roland agrees that South San Jose is underserved but is offended by the allegation that some people in the district may be low-income
CM Beech thanks members of the public for comments, rather than seeking to constrain the amount of comments as with recent suggestions at the Caltrain board
CM Beech asks about next update about infrastructure needs of the blended service
including latest information about passing track options (which the previous presentation showed was extremely important for the potential level of ridership)
I did make the comment, and said "I hope you are considering station access as part of your environmental footprint, and solar panels on top of parking garage serving customers driving long distances don't count"
Boris Lipkin answers the Brisbane council member - the railyard is going to be in the materials to be presented in October.
@threadreaderapp unroll
