# Caltrain Fiscal Emergency



## WhoozOn1st (Jun 5, 2009)

From the San Mateo Daily Journal:

Caltrain declares fiscal emergency

"...the emergency declaration allows Caltrain to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act, which conducts reviews when transit service is modified."

Don't think I've ever seen such a bare bones website for a transit agency: Caltrain


----------



## Alice (Jun 5, 2009)

WhoozOn1st said:


> From the San Mateo Daily Journal:
> Caltrain declares fiscal emergency
> 
> "...the emergency declaration allows Caltrain to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act, which conducts reviews when transit service is modified."
> ...


Caltrain's emergency was declared June 4. This June 5 article has the decisions about service cuts and price raises, mixed in with VTA decisions.

CalTrain's website looks better if you hover over some of the tabs at the top.


----------



## WhoozOn1st (Jun 5, 2009)

Alice said:


> CalTrain's website looks better if you hover over some of the tabs at the top.


Don't care for helicopters, so not into hovering.


----------



## sechs (Jun 6, 2009)

WhoozOn1st said:


> Don't think I've ever seen such a bare bones website for a transit agency


I guess you've never seen it before, since it's looked like this for years.

Compare to the Samtrans website. They're done by the same people.


----------



## WhoozOn1st (Jun 6, 2009)

sechs said:


> WhoozOn1st said:
> 
> 
> > Don't think I've ever seen such a bare bones website for a transit agency
> ...


Quite right, I hadn't seen it before. Haven't gotten around to riding Caltrain, either. In planning a ride I woulda seen the website, and perhaps the remarkably similar Samtrans one as well. So far my meager Caltrain experience amounts to taking pics of some consists sitting at San Jose during a Coast Starlight stop, a few shots of the shops, and watching one roar out of a station behind a train 11 I was on, then pass it like we were standing still.


----------



## Alice (Jun 6, 2009)

WhoozOn1st said:


> In planning a ride I woulda seen the website, and perhaps the remarkably similar Samtrans one as well.


I prefer http://511.org/, because it can plan a trip with any of the area transit systems. The trip planner is very friendly, and flexible if you get into the Additional Options section. As you know, I'm an infrequent transit user, but I use the site because it has data to predict traffic in the future ("When do I have to leave Berkeley to get to San Francisco by 6:45pm next Friday?"). It also has a cell phone option for transit and traffic at 511.


----------



## jackal (Jun 6, 2009)

I'm partial to Google Transit in areas where it has comprehensive coverage. Unfortunately, in the Bay Area, it's missing a couple of the operators (Samtrans is one), but it does provide coverage for the following:



> Google Transit can plan trips on the following agencies in this area:AC Transit - ‎www.actransit.org
> 
> BART - ‎www.bart.gov
> 
> ...


----------



## sechs (Jun 7, 2009)

Alice said:


> I prefer http://511.org/, because it can plan a trip with any of the area transit systems. The trip planner is very friendly, and flexible if you get into the Additional Options section.


Although 511's trip planner is much better than it used to be, it continues to do fairly ridiculous things -- like telling you to ride a bus pass your connection point, cross the street, and then ride the same bus going the other way. It also has a tendency to leave too much time between connections, which leads to either getting to your destination much earlier than expected or a lot of waiting.

VTA doesn't even use 511's transit planner on their website. They have Google Transit.


----------



## George Harris (Jun 12, 2009)

Rode out to Mountain View and back Wednesday evening. They were checking all tickets and putting up hat checks. Apparently the decision has been made to push real hard to catch fare evaders on the evening trains.


----------



## sechs (Jun 13, 2009)

They're seat checks, and using them is the prerogative of the agent.

You may have noted that the slips still have eight fare zones noted on them, even though Caltrain moved to six zones some years ago. I've only noted part-timers (the guys who fill-in and work on weekends and holidays) using seat checks. I had one who punched tickets, too.


----------

