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| 12/23 |
| 2005/11/11-13 [Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:40548 Activity:moderate |
11/11 "Caltrain Ridership Up 29 Percent Since Baby Bullet Debut"
http://www.caltrain.org/news_2005_11_10_ridership_up.html
\_ Public transit really works if it's done right.
\_ I was in Holland and wanted to do some shopping in the small
town where my grandmother lives ... I left at 3:30 and she
warned me that the shops were already closed in town. So I
took the train to Utrecht, a major city, which took just 25
minutes. When I got to the train station, I noticed there was
a mall connected to the train station. I bought some candy &
clothes, and then noticed a street market, where I bought
marijuana, and then noticed a street market, where I bought
stroopwafels (one of my favs) and other things. I got back on
the train and managed to get back even before the time I said
I would (within 3 hours). I've only driven a car once in
Holland and I preferred the train.
\_ one time, I was driving a car, and then I hit a train
and I was sad and then I saw a flower and picked it up
and when I stood up I saw that the engineer of the
train was beautiful woman and we fell in love and thats
why I know cars are better than trains.
\_ also helps that the economy's picked up too. The streets seem
a bit busier too -caltrain rider
\_ Holland is smaller than my backyard and you took 3 hours to
go shopping? You think an hour of travel time just to buy
some candy at a train station mall is a good use of time?
I can walk to the store and back in less time than that in
my SUV ridden suburb. If you had an hour of travel time and
it took 10 minutes to get a box of candy, where'd the other
2 hours ago? Smoking that pot?
\_ Slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey, according
to the CIA world factbook. New Jersey also has good
public transit, by the way.
\_ Gas prices over $2 / gallon probably helps too. |
| 12/23 |
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| www.caltrain.org/news_2005_11_10_ridership_up.html Caltrain ridership up 29 percent News Caltrain Caltrain Ridership Up 29 Percent Since Baby Bullet Debut Caltrains reinvention as a rail service offering faster trips and more we ekday frequency has led to big increases in ridership, which are helping the commuter rail line close a budget gap that had threatened its survi val. Since Caltrain introduced a new streamlined schedule on Aug. The increases in both ridership and revenue are even more dramatic when c ompared to levels before Caltrain introduced its Baby Bullet service in June 2004 with 10 of the popular express trains. Average weekday ridership has gone from 26,603 pre-Baby Bullet to 34,430 as of September of this year, and revenue is up 50 percent, Harvey said. In those two years, Caltrains 76-train weekday schedule has grown to 96, effective Aug. Caltrain managed to increase service and offer faster trips at more stations by completel y revamping the way local service is provided. More than 200 stops were eliminated from the schedule, service to the Pau l Avenue Station (San Francisco) was suspended and weekday service was e liminated at the Broadway (Burlingame) and Atherton stations. We had to make some difficult and controversial decisions knowing that th ey might cost us some riders, said Caltrain board chair Mike Nevin. But overall the strategy which was used to reinvent Caltrain has been vindic ated by overall ridership growth. Clearly, passengers want the faster tr avel times that Caltrain now offers. Higher gas prices may have lured some drivers onto Caltrain but the rider ship gains havent always matched gas price spikes. As for future growth, Caltrain is operating with such tight operating eff iciencies and available tracks that it has run out of options for even m ore service increases. Construction projects that will take place in the coming year will allow for faster speeds for trains approaching San Francisco and also provide space to park trains, reducing track and rail yard congestion and giving train crews more options to recover after equipment breakdowns and othe r incidents. |