I'm from LA, where I very rarely take public transportation, so taking trains is always novel to me....and a little scary. I tend to get lost on public transit. But not this one! The stops are all clearly marked and were announced clearly, and there were train employees both outside the train before I boarded, and around once aboard to ask questions of if I'd felt extra uneasy. Yes, I was checked for a ticket once I was on the train, so don't YOU try to sneak through, that's a $250 fine. The trains were delightfully clean and I like how much room they allot for bikes; they get their own special car (you have to stay by your bike, you aren't allowed to lock it to anything). I didn't feel rushed to get on or off, like I was going to be trapped/left behind. I managed to catch the Baby Bullet train from Palo Alto to San Jose, which cut my travel time by a third, and that's hard to complain about. It was easy to get a seat facing the way we were traveling (motion sick=no fun). Yay CalTrain! read more

O Caltrain, how I remember first taking you when I was 12... the only way to get around besides buses in the Bay at the time (before the BART was extended). The stops are convenient, Baseball Games in SF, SJ Diridon, Hillsdale Mall, San Mateo Fair Grounds and now Millbrae BART. Friendly conductors and clean trains, I just wish it wasn't so expensive now, over $4 to go one zone over?! At least I don't have to pay for parking and gas when I take the train. read more

I love CalTrain! So freaking civilized. Clean, quiet, beautiful 2-level trains. They have bathrooms, electrical outlets, even bike cars. It feels like AMTRAK...or a European train. read more

Caltrain, please don't strike! We need you!! You are better than any boyfriend....always on time, reliable, and ever soothing with your low, steady rumble. I take one star off for some of the annoying announcers. There is one woman who uses a very sing-song high pitched voice and speaks as though she is entertaining children at the zoo. (Well, not far off, I suppose.) But, so annoying. Then there is one man who thinks he is funny and likes to hear himself talk. Only thing is, he SPEEDS through his speech because he has no doubt said it a million times. As a result, it sounds like a rushed mess. This is not Great America, and you are not announcing the Demon. ***English is my first language, and I have trouble understanding him, so, it must be DOUBLY difficult for foreign visitors to understand. Slow down. Say the station name clearly and repeat it. And be brief. PLEASE. In that respect (being brief), I guess you are like a boyfriend! read more

I mean drinking while commuting and avoiding traffic? It gets you to where you need it to. Thanks for something useful that my tax dollars go towards. read more

Thank goodness for Caltrain as I hate driving into the city and not a fan of BART or Muni unless you enjoy the smell of urine in the morning. Most of the conductors on Caltrain are pretty cool and will have a conversation with you and share a joke or smile. Caltrain is normally right on schedule which is really nice. I prefer the silver cars verses the red bombardiers because of leg space issues and having to be so close facing those seated across from you. Caltrain takes a lot of cars off the road making the commute, ours being one, and the travel ticket is a lot cheaper than the cost of fuel and SF parking. Folks will always complain but Caltrain, you're doing a good job and your increased ridership speaks to that fact. PS, Those of use that come from or visited places in the world that don't offer this convenience tend to appreciate it more. Those that have always lived here should visit other places to gain an appreciation for the multiple forms of travel you have here in this area. Maybe some just like paying the SF parking fees, sitting in Freeway traffic, or the high fuel costs? LOL :-) read more

Caltrain (not CalTrain, Cal Train or Cal train) is being impacted as a victim of its own success. Since many aren't willing to tax themselves for more frequent/ faster/ better train service (unlike those living in areas served by BART) Caltrain's rolling stock tends to be older, more rickety and the headways are way longer than convenient, but the quality of service shines. Although you cannot prevent suicides by train (as the distraught choose to impose psychological harm upon the train engineer who cannot stop a full-length commuter train in time as well as the messed up schedules to everyone else on down the line) the staff tries as much as possible to keep their ridership relatively sane. From that lone male conductor who wears an old cap saying "Trainman" across the front brim to the woman who wears a trench coat with coattails attached, many of the employees aboard give Caltrain a public persona to what otherwise is a utilitarian monolithic service whose primary job is to get you from point A to B reliably, but not necessarily on time. For you twitter folk, the @Caltrain_News (www.twitter.com/caltrain_news) communications manager is hilarious and witty in comparison to many others employed by different transit agencies (like Metrolink in Southern California.) Should you find yourself waiting for a train that didn't show up on time, tweet away (nicely and maybe humorously.) The best thing about Caltrain: bicycle service. But don't bring too many aboard; they're starting to get bumped due to trains being full nowadays. Caltrain is the most bicycle accessible commuter rail service in the country, hands down. read more

It's the commuter train from Sourdoughville to Garlictown. It's owned by Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board and run by AmTrak under contract. The schedule is very San Francisco-centric in that they assume most people are trying to get into the city in the AM and out of the city in the PM. A lot of CalTrain's aspects are pretty good, but it has major flaws you need to be aware of. If the flaws were gone, this would be a solid 5 stars Pros: It's a gas and time saver when compared on average to highway 101 during rush hour. A two zone or greater monthly pass is good on VTA and SamTrans. It's *very* bike-friendly. They have toilets on board. They are even clean most of the time. They let you eat and drink on board. You can even booze it up if it's before 9 PM on game nights and anytime if it's not a game night. Just clean up after yourself and don't mess with people around you. The AmTrak staff that run the trains are for the most part, helpful and friendly--some of them are pretty funny, too. Several stations are "inter-modal" where you can catch a bus, Bart, or light-rail without doing a Bataan Death March reenactment. Lots of stations have free or low cost shuttles that run you to outlying areas during commute hours. Baby Bullets! The super-duper express trains really cut the commute times down! Cons: Some trains are late. It's the nature of the beast, tho. But worse, some trains like to leave early. And not the "noted on the schedule, you've been warned" kind of early; but the "pretty much random--so even if you get there before the scheduled departure, you might still end up running for it only to see the doors close on your face" kind of early... The clocks on the platform also run fast--anywhere from one to five minutes and the trains seem to sync with the faster platform time. If you want to buy a parking permit from a TVM with a prepaid Commuter Check For Parking Debt card: Forget about it. CalTrain said their credit card system is setup with the IRS as Transit. The FSP provider stated that moving elected parking funds to a Commuter Check For Transit Debt card to pay for parking might tweak the IRS in *very* undesirable ways, that they would need to research it more, and don't do anything until they figure out what the heck, blah blah blah. The current options are to either a) Get a paper commuter check for parking and buy it in person from the San Carlos HQ (major PITA.) or b) Pay with post tax funds and submit for a reimbursement (mild PITA.) Sadly, CalTrain seems to be the suicide method of choice for a lot of people and when it happens, the trains get snarled up way worse than usual. CalTrain, to it's credit, has started making it more and more harder to suicide via CalTrain. Hopefully, CalTrain will make it so much more harder that it will be easier to go to counseling. read more

I've just started taking the train since a tank of gas roughly costs the same amount as a human eyeball on the black market. Plus, it's only adds an extra 10 minutes to my commute. At $106 for a 2 zone monthly pass, I'm breaking even on gas but savings miles on my '95 Toyota. The San Carlos Caltrain station is a little different than the rest since you can usually find parking in and around the lot, and this is the one that everyone uses for Giants games. Don't take the 6:29 northbound train on a Friday unless you want to stand the whole time. The train is always packed full of fans with 12 packs (my kind of people) trying to make the 7:15 game. After the game, there is a train that expresses to San Carlos, which is why everyone picked the train up there. Otherwise, the Caltrain is great. Not very dirty, like the Bart can be. Not loud like the VTA. It's fine with me. So stop sitting in (suddenly less trafficy) rush hour and take the train. By the way, you're not late. The 7:50am southbound train out of San Carlos usually arrives at 7:54, and rarely 7:52. read more

Turn in the air and ventilate this incubus of consolidate bacteria. #cantbreathe Also clean the damn seats...bathroom and arm rests and handles. Smells like poopoo read more

Do NOT take Caltrain to and from the SF Giants games.....especially night games!! We stood in the aisle to the game the whole way from Redwood City to SF. After the game, we got on the southbound train at 11:30pm. There were no seats available for me, my husband and two sons. We sat on the floor of the "train car". It was so packed that the whole car had people sitting on the floor and the aisle was full of standing passengers. We had to make every stop from SF to Redwood City. A group of twenty-somethings sat on the floor next to us passing around a bottle of Vodka and then a vapor pipe and then a marijuana pipe. I didn't feel comfortable confronting the group because they were drunk and high and now pending the empty vodka bottle on the floor of the train. We got up and moved upstairs when seats vacated. I couldn't believe my kids had to sit and inhale vapor and marijuana on a trip home from the Giants game!! There was NO security or conductors in sight to ask this group to stop smoking and drinking on the train. Total disappointment. We will never take the train to and from the Giants game again. read more

I took Caltrain from Redwood City to Sunnyvale today and was too rush to tag on my clipper card. When I saw the Caltrain worker and asked for purchasing tickets or tagging on, she said no tagging on the train and gave me a $75 notice of violation. WHAT A SHITTY SERVICE. read more

Some people clip their fuckin' fingernails on the trains. Some talk entirely too loud on their cellphones about inane shit (Seriously, who the hell do you talk to at 7 in the morning?) Some forget to shut the restroom door after they poop. Some wear cologne strong enough to kill off living species within 3 feet proximity. Occasionally, some selfish folks decide life is unworthy of living and cause train delays by jumping in front of them. Caltrain, despite of many misgivings, is irreplaceable in my life. Caltrain is generally punctual and clean. The conductors are friendly and the passengers keep to themselves. I commute from Santa Clara to Palo Alto daily and haven't had to deal with rush hour traffic in five years. By saving money on gas, reducing car mileage and minimizing pollution output, I also manage to read a lot of books that I wouldn't have time for otherwise. Most importantly, Caltrain saves my sanity. Road rage is a scary, scary thing. And there are many idiots on the road. Additional Info: Monthly ticket can be mailed to you if you have a credit card account set up. Caltrain charges the account around the 15th of each month and you get the ticket and parking permit before the 20th. The monthly pass is good for all zones during the weekend and can be used for buses and light rail. If the train is going to be delayed or nulled, just hop on a bus for free. **The same day I wrote this review, the seventh Caltrain fatality this year occurred. A man jumped in front of a northbound train at 4:20 p.m., halted trains in both directions. As we passed the accident site three hours later, I caught glimpse of various tarps lain down to cover scattered body parts. Policemen scooped smaller parts into plastic bags. A photographer was walking up with his camera. The wind blew, revealing a torso under a large tarp. I gasped. Some teenagers on the train laughed and joked about the dead body. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a cap and a pair of headphones on the platform. read more

Slightly delayed but I would say most of the time it is on target with the board displayed ETA's which are updated based on the train hitting any complications or if it is (rarely) early. This particular CalTrain is in a great centrally located area for San Carlos which is appreciated and had a neat little cafe here that has decent breakfast as well. Really enjoy the CalTrain over BART and the route with less stops is usually also very efficient and quick. However it is slightly unreliable during rush hour or for people who need to be someplace on time such as for work. Upcoming San Francisco 49er's game will also be relegating the CalTrain to the sole usage of people with Superbowl tickets as well which I find offensive use of the local taxpayers monies! read more

Thank God for Caltrain...won't know what to do or how to get to work without it. For those who travels more than 2 zones, get the monthly pass and you can ride the VTAs for free so it's a great deal...can't beat it. I only wish all the conductors are friendly and helpful - some are while some are really horrible. read more

After many years of intellectually approving of trains as alternatives to car commuting, I finally realized how much I actually hate them and wish there were none. The fact is their deafening noise, sinister industrial presence, and inherent dangers to cars and pedestrians outweigh their theoretical environmental benefits. Sure it takes a few people off the freeway, but then think of the massive extra pollution of thousands of cars that must idle at train crossings for 5 or more minutes per passing train--at EVERY crossing, for EVERY train, all day and all night long, but ESPECIALLY at rush hour. Add the frustration, extra drive time, and noise-blasted suffering of all those people waiting in all those cars--far more people than benefit by riding in the train itself. Add the massive extra traffic delays throughout the grid, due to constant backups at train crossings on major surface streets. And then the regular accidents and suicides at crossings. Bottom line: benefits for a very few, but extra stress, danger and inconvenience for literally EVERYONE else. And you can't tell me there is really a net system-wide environmental positive from Caltrain, not with all that associated extra exhaust from idling cars--an idling engine is the dirtiest engine of all. At this point it's OK with me if Caltrain goes all the way broke, and just shuts down entirely. I'd like to see the tracks pulled up, and the whole right-of-way turned into a tree-lined bicycle and pedestrian parkway from SF to SJ. Now that really WOULD be a net positive! read more

Ridden the c train for over ten years, love the way I do not have to wait the whole 1 hr.

I wish every tranportation organization would follow in the footsteps of Caltrain on their arrival time accuracies. The train is on time 80% of the time. At most being 10 minutes late. Unlike MUNI, who is 20 minutes late and always full of smelly people. Caltrain is comfortable and the people who ride it are nice. Plus, there's no homeless people. Another good thing is that they provide parking spaces for people to commute to the station and then take the train to their final destination. I also love the fact that they check tickets. Unlike MUNI, who just lets anyone go on through the back door. read more

I used to take Caltrain in the early 80's to get to and from elementary school. It's changed greatly (for the better) since my early years. Bullet trains really speed up the commute time and make it worthwhile to take public transportation. With the way gas prices cost these days, you can save a lot of money as well as arrive to your final destination stress free. During rush hour you can get from San Jose to San Francisco in one hour. You can't say that if you're driving in traffic. If your subsidizes or commuter checks you save that much more money. There are some cons to taking the train. You have to be able to commit to a set schedule. There are a few times when trains are delayed due to people not paying attention to crossing signals and flirting with disaster but that is not a controllable issue. Overall, the convenience and being stress free makes it all worth it. read more

One star for each of the dearly departed, so swiftly cushioned into the iron-grill of the oncoming evening daily from San Jose. It's not that I'm implying only South Bay individuals fancy a wee jump in front of a rather large moving object, I'm simply observing that fact. So don't die, move to the City. I do fancy this train though, it's a reference appendix to any Douglas Coupland novel. read more

The toxic bachelor loves his new ride - the Caltrain. For his recent suburb visits (courtesy the cutest dog), he takes the Caltrain back into town. Being extremely ubersexual about his transportation, he hates BART but likes the urban interiors of the Caltrain, and especially the jingle it arrives with. The Baby Bullet service is great (skips most stops, gets to SF in no time), the bachelor couldnt enjoy it more. Since he anticipates more of these rides in the forthcoming morning's, he is waiting to discover the best parts of Caltrain. Caltrain is also a nice place to hook-up, as long as you can come up with a solid technical question :) read more

Fuck you, Caltrain. I love public transportation but pricing system of the various fares is horrendous. To go round trip a mere three stops costs me $8. I could, however spend that same 8 bucks on gas and drive to work all week and that is sad and counter intuitive. The train SHOULD be a more appealing option than a car. AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE DRIVING. Come on... To the city and east bay, BART is better. Southbound Samtrans is better. We should ditch Caltrain and expand BART, that would be killer... A girl can dream I suppose. read more

Caltrain is like an old friend, in a bad way: reliable most of the time, it will also flake on you at the worst time. What's with one of the baby bullets "breaking down" (I quote) in Palo Alto this morning? This is a brand new train?! you've got to be kidding me! Oh yeah, you try and get all sexy with your press release re. a *test* for WiFi between a couple of stations? that's hot. Tell you what, why don't you operate reliable trains first? And yes, do add *reliable* and non-experimental WiFi soon. Please. read more

i LOVE commuting on Caltrain!!! I save time, money & decreasing my chances getting into a car accident or a traffic ticket. LOL. At first, it can be intimidating trying to figure out the schedule but once you do that, it's awesome. i just sit & relax listening to my ipod or reading a magazine. i can get to San Jose from Menlo Park in just 30 minutes if I can get to the bullet in time. you can't beat that, especially during traffic times. read more

I have a love/hate relationship with caltrain. The more I ride it the more it turns to hate. As a devout greenie and bike commuter there is a lot at stake for me to keep it running. That being said, it is so badly run that even with packed trains, they are robbing their maintenance budget to stay afloat. And what's with the clipper cards? The system is a joke, especially if, like me, you have to commute to jobs in different towns. I am a Physical Fitness Professional and I work in SF and on the peninsula... My job requires me to be in San Francisco, Redwood City, and Santa Clara at different times of the day and week. So try and follow this without getting seasick: If you want to go to mutliple towns during your week, say, Zone 1 to Zone 4 some of the time and Zone 2 to Zone 4 some of the time and Zone 2 to Zone 1. You better plan on loading up and carrying 3 different clipper cards or get charged out the wazoo for daring to tag off in an earlier zone! Even if it's a shorter trip!! As long as I stayed within the zones I should be ok right? WRONG! You must get ON and get OFF where you stated you would when you purchased the card or "the system" will charge you a little "fee". Who can plan their month like that? I'd like to get my hands around the throat of the nimrod who designed the clipper card. I really would. What does it matter anyway? The trains are moving to the same places! It's not like they use more fuel to carry passengers further. Hey Caltrain! Sort it out! How about a flat rate at the gate? Because your clipper card system is jacked up! On top of that, they check tickets only about half the time I feel a slow burn coming on when I get hassled profusely by a ticket taker who's chock full of fake authority because I tagged on in Zone 2 with my Zone 1 to Zone 4 pass! Then, the very next day I see the sneaky little jerkward ducking into the bathroom while another pair of clueless ticket takers are bantering meaningless chit chat with each other. If a flat ride rate is too hard, then what is so hard about a card gate system like BART has? Finally, for the price of a monthly pass you could make a car payment on a brand new car, seriously! I hate to say it but this greenie is going to have to add another car on the road. Life is too short to waste with inconvenient schedules, surly ticket checkers and ripoff clipper cards that steal your money. read more

Mass transit in the bay area sucks. It's a simple problem of too many political boundaries in this region (Seven counties, countless municipalities, yet not a large enough population in proportion to the rest of the state for Sacramento to care). This is why we're stuck with with Muni, BART, Caltrain, SAMtrans, VTA, et al, yet none of them are interoperable. Any trip that requires two of these services to link up is a recipe for frustration. I could go on with this rant, but in regards to Caltrain it does a passable job of what it's trying to do, but it would be infinitely better if it ran the Baby Bullet at all hours of the day. That the "stop at every station" trains take 90 minutes to go from SF to Palo Alto is simply unacceptable when a car on the freeway can make that trip in less than half that time. Sadly, this idea is doomed to never come to pass. Running Baby Bullets at all times would cause unending protests from Atherton, San Carlos, and other small peninsula governments who would get passed by. As a result, the rest of the bay area suffers from poorer service and increased automobile traffic. read more

in all my years riding caltrain (decades), they almost always manage to do something that pisses me off... - despite millbrae being their explicit connection point to bart, the waiting southbound caltrain waiting will pull away just as they see people getting off a southbound bart - i've had to wait an hour for another train because a conductor chose to tell me to wait for the next train rather than point out a clipper card scanner right behind me - i've been denied boarding with an ordinary bike because there "wasn't room" (there clearly was...even getting comments from passengers inside) - their agents are often really rude in response to simple questions (see the many other reviews with this complaint...it must be hard to lose your job on caltrain once you get in) not to mention infrequent and expensive service, crappy connections in S.F., polluting trains, and a lack of modern real-time train info...in silicon valley in the 21st century! too bad we've wasted taxpayer money on electrification and many caltrain 'improvement' boondoggles. lobby your local representative to do away with caltrain once and for all and get bart to ring the bay as it was originally intended to do. (p.s. thanks caltrain for the missed connection at millbrae today - it gave me time to write this review i've always wanted to write!) read more

Pluses: You can drink alcohol on board (provided it's not after 9 after a special event) Train is clean Train doesn't have traffic I've always gotten a seat Expresses and bullets get you there faster You're working on internet on the train. I appreciate that. You have bike cars. I also appreciate that. Minuses: every hour on the weekend Some nights it's 2 hours between the second to last and last train Last train on Sunday is 9pm :( You don't make it free between Caltrain and SFO! It's a mile on bart. Why does Bart charge? read more

So, I finally made the move from San Francisco to Redwood City. On top of the drama of moving, learning a new neighborhood, living with the boyfriend, and dealing with a crappy ghetto apartment, I've still got my 30-50 minute commute into SF for work each day. Enter: Caltrain. Thank god for Caltrain, when your life is stressful enough as it goes. Sure Caltrain has it's bad moments. Like the time the train in front of me hit a pedestrian, and we had to ride by the scene with the uncovered corpse. That was pretty shocking... And, the time there was a robber on the train. What kind of an idiot takes the Caltrain as a get-away from the scene of their crime? And, the stress of the over-crowded bike cars, the occasional late train, and the sometimes obnoxious patrons. Forget all that- Caltrain is genius, because on most days I am saved from the inherently stressful car ride. For that, I'm grateful. Thank you, Caltrain. PS: One criticizm: perhaps more bullet trains, outside of "commuter hours" would help? If I'm outside of the 9-5 schedule, I'm screwed! read more

BART fare to Colma Station - $5.60 BART's late arrival to Colmaa Station - 30 minutes Finding SamTrans 49ers shuttle - 15 minutes Roundtrip fare - $15 (cash only, exact change required) Cab fare from Colma Station to stadium - $? (the cabbie in the Colma Parking Lot didn't know what or where Monster Stadium was) Wait for shuttle to depart - 50 minutes Never, EVER taking that Godforsaken shuttle again - you know it's priceless. Why pay $30 per couple to take the shuttle when you can park for $20-$25? How does that encourage public transportation? Lame. read more

Well, I am finally writing a review for the agency that got me to work for the past 3.5 years. All in all, I can't complain too much about my Caltrain experience. The good: No driving No parking No traffic Environmentally friendly SJ to SF in an hour Train buddies Drinking allowed bathrooms The Bad The old equipment (silver cars) very shaky and loud Delays; accidents, mechanical problems, and catching up to the train in front of us If I were a first time rider, or a tourist, I would never be able to figure out what train I'm on , or what stops it makes. Here are a few tips I picked up along the way 1. The last two digits of the train number are located on the side mirrors located next to the engineer's window. 2. Train numbers ending in odd numbers are are going northbound, even numbers southbound 3. Train numbers starting with a 3 are bullet trains, 2's are limited stops, and 1's make every stop. read more

The price of a monthly pass for me has risen $40 in less than a year, but online customers still have to tag on and off, and wait 5 days for activation. Autoload is broken too. Clipper just sucks. So does your train staff. If you're going to charge me more, fix your damn service read more

It impossible to park at the station. You should walk 15 minutes from the parking to the station. Ridiculous.

Sorry to say, bad customer service/ lack of knowledge/ helpfulness. I purchased a 1 month CALTRAIN pass ( 3 zone ) and also a 1 month VTA Local pass ( Santa Clara County Bus/ Light Rail)... agent did not say anything was amiss... there goes $253.25. Come to find out, the 3 zone CALTRAIN pass comes with a free 1 month VTA pass; and I didn't have to, should not have purchased the VTA pass... ouch. Tried to get a refund but was told it was my own fault for not reading the multiple brochures/ WWW sites/ etc... my response was simply, hello, when I bought both passes at the same time on the same clipper card, it would have been nice to have the agent point out the freebie! By the way, no mention of the free VTA pass is on the CALTRAIN timetable ( near where the zone $$$ amounts are shown!). No mercy from CLIPPER 800 number, nor from samTrans Customer Service supervisor. Best they can do is Review the issue, and submit to VTA supervisor for their approval. Future customers beware, attitude from agents/ supervisors was we don't have to tell you what is what, answer your questions with correct answers, nor are we responsible for errors of omission/ commission! Thumbs down to CALTRAIN/ samTrans/ VTA/ Clipper for bad Agent training, poor customer service, supervisor escalation and especially dealing with rider questions/ issues... read more

They let you drink alcohol ... don't mind if I do! For that alone Caltrain gets five stars. Add to that it's clean, comfy, quick, on time, reliable, and has no bums pissing in the corner, and you've got yourself a perfect commute. It's kind of expensive but I think it's worth it so no big deal. read more

I commute by Caltrain every work day. In general I have no cause to complain because as other people mentioned, you can 1. drink, 2. eat, 3. get a seat most days, 4. actually get a monthly pass, unlike BART, 5. the conductors are nice. However, recently Caltrain pissed me off. I moved recently, and during the move I did not update my Wageworks account to receive a monthly parking pass. I went and bought the monthly parking pass from the 4th and King station, and received it, no questions asked. When I went back to try to obtain it again, I received the following responses: 1. I can't sell it to you without your monthly permit. (Fine, that's fair.) 2. I can't sell it to you without your monthly permit and a receipt. (I explained that I don't get a receipt, to no avail.) 3. I can't sell it to you because we only sell it to you when you purchase the monthly pass. (When I explained that I got it earlier with no problem, the guy actually said, "Sure, we'll sell it once or twice separately, but we won't do it every time." Okay, so they are admitting to being inconsistent??!) My last resort was to make a comment on the Caltrain page, and I was emailed a long apology and told to call someone who would FINALLY order me a permit. With no discount. And it was already almost two weeks into the month. So, just a warning on the monthly parking permit thing: Purchase it at the same time you buy your monthly pass. Update your Wageworks. For some reason on Wageworks you have to purchase this separately from your pass and they arrive in separate envelopes. read more

How does the main train for the silicon valley not post real time departure information on its website so you can decide before leaving your house if it's worth it or if your train is significantly delayed? read more

Caltrain - Public Transportation Near Me - Millbrae, California

Caltrain is great... They're fast, the trains are relatively clean, and the conductor's are pretty cool... The stops are very convenient no matter where you are on the peninsula and parts of the south bay. In fact, I'm on Caltrain right now. The only complaint that i have is that they kepp raising their fares.. twice within a year! read more

I used to take Caltrain to and from San Francisco and Santa Clara all the time. It is slow. There are crazy people on it. The people that work on the train are mean, very, very mean. They yell at you for having your feet on the seat. And it takes an hour and a half. Damn! The only thing good about this is that you don't have to drive through traffic to get to the city then look or have to pay for parking. Oh and you can take a bike which is kind of nice. read more

Caltrain is one of the greater transportation systems that the Bay Area has to offer. Trains are cleaner than most, the ride can get interesting and it is made for commuters (bathroom, plugs). I love to take it to SF from SJ, cause it's convenient, you don't have to worry about parking and you have the option of having one, two or five beers on the way up there. Only downfall, the bullet trains don't run on the weekend so you have limited options of using Caltrain if you need to get there under an hour. Mmmmm.. read more