Caltrain's Weekend Baby Bullet Deemed a Success

Caltrain's experiment with weekend express trains has proved to be a success, according to transit officials.

The weekend Baby Bullet train service started in January, and the pilot program was supposed to last only three months but the service has been extended, because of its popularity.

The express service adds two round-trip express trains to the schedule. The trains travel between San Francisco and San Jose stations, stopping at Millbrae, San Mateo, Hillsdale, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale.

Express service cuts travel time between San Francisco and San Jose from one hour and 36 minutes to 57 minutes. From Mountain View, the Baby Bullets northbound to San Francisco depart 10:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m and arrive 28 minutes later, in comparison to a little over an hour on the normal trains.

Caltrain officials said ridership went up 30 percent on the bullet trains as well as on the local weekend trains.

"This is a strong indication that the new weekend Baby Bullet service is not just existing riders who changed to the Baby Bullet trains but a real increase in overall ridership," Michelle Bouchard, Caltrain director of transportation, said in a statement.          

Transit officials said that Caltrain's ridership overall has increased, with the average weekday ridership up 12.7 percent over last year and average weekend ridership up 21 percent from last year.

—Bay City News Service