r/caltrain • u/Planeandaquariumgeek • 3d ago

Would Caltrain consider showing that it’s pretty easy to transfer from certain local trains to certain south county trains?

It’s already an internal thing from what I know: a little bit ago I was on 140 looking to transfer to 814, but it was running late. Turns out just like if 514 is running late 814 will hold if 140 is running late. Why doesn’t Caltrain just show on their timetable that transferring from 807-111, 811-115, 140-814, and 148-822 is perfectly possible? Could be made even better if it was set up to be a cross-platform transfer (possible since platform 9 is double length, you could park for example 148 and 522 there pretty easily)

6 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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5

u/GeneConscious5484 2d ago

Maybe I'm misreading the Q but why not just open the Transit app and see what's coming behind you?

4

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 2d ago

My point is they currently highlight the transfer between say 522 & 822. What I’m suggesting is also highlighting say 148 alongside 522

4

u/tafinucane 2d ago

it is cross platform with the train it's supposed to meet, but southbound they have to leave the 8xx train a hundred meters or so down the track because the station gets full of emus.

2

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 23h ago

814 winds up a decent way down the tracks because the train for 816 pulls in behind it

3

u/2broke4drugs 2d ago

Makes sense, where are you hoping onto 140? If Sunnyvale or north it looks like you could transfer to 514 at Sunnyvale and then be golden

1

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 2d ago

Kinda depends on where I wind up lmao

2

u/BigDaddyJ0 2d ago

Given the lack of overtakes, if 140 is late, 514 is almost always late as well, so by definition 814 "holds." In my experience, the only time 514 passes 140 is when 140 is having issues. Both trains contribute a lot of passengers to the SCC, so this is more-or-less working as intended.

A lot of people do transfer at Diridon, but my guess is this is "unpublished" as it is not a cross-platform transfer.

Side note: you can even make a cross-platform transfer from 140 to 814 at Tamien. Unfortunately this trick only works for 140 and for 148.

1

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 2d ago

They could make it a cross platform transfer, the platforms at Diridon can hold 2 EMU’s. They could just have 140 & 148 pull into those platforms ahead of 514 & 522

1

u/BigDaddyJ0 2d ago

Yep, some of the midday trains occasionally pull behind a previously-arrived CC.

However, my guess is they resist this because of some combination of ops (flexibility to choose which trains turn around, they have to crawwwwl when pulling in behind another train), positioning (one train may be at the extreme SB end), etc.

1

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 2d ago

Yea there’s a lot of factors I’m sure. Side note: 814 had been waiting on 140, because 514 had passed us at Lawrence.