Caltrain should be more like CT Transit (San Jose, San Francisco: 2014, bus)

[jade408]

Good points here, but NIMBYs in the Peninsula wouldn't approve any of these ideas:

Here's How You Could Get 'Google Bus' Riders To Take Public Transit - Business Insider

[sav858]

Even if Caltrain did improve reverse commute service you still have the issue of people in SF getting to a Caltrain station, that isn't likely going to improve anytime soon.

[matt345]

Anybody know why SF never built a central train station like most other major cities have? It seems like every other large/mid-size city has main train terminal where long distance rail, commuter rail, and local transit lines come together. I know they're building the Transbay Terminal now, but something should have been built a long time ago. And even when that's finished, it still won't have direct connections to BART, Muni, or Amtrak. SF should have one central location where Caltrain, BART, Muni, and Amtrak all meet for easy connections.

[wooliemonster]

It's due to the history of the area and it's complicated geography.

I don't think there has ever been a rail mainline into downtown San Francisco. The San Francisco - San Jose Railroad was completed in 1863, with the original route through Noe Valley and a terminal at 18th and Valencia, but was extended to the current Caltrain Terminal site by 1875. The Bayshore Cutoff was completed in 1907, giving the present faster route along the bay. Commuter trains were privately operated by Southern Pacific from 1870 through 1980 when it began to receive state subsidy and later sold to the Peninsula County Joint Powers Board and rebranded as Caltrain in the late 1980s.

I believe most trains, such as the Transcontinental Railroad, terminated in Oakland, with ferries for the final leg to SF. Direct East Bay rail service was first established with Key System streetcar lines on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge in the 1930s, with the first incarnation of the Transbay Terminal the final stop (before it was turned into bus only stop, then demolished) Sadly, those didn't last very long before they were torn out with the rest of the system.

Given the historical constraints, the new Transbay Terminal won't be that bad when (if) the Caltrain Downtown Extension is completed. I believe it will have some kind of underground connection to the Montgomery or Embarcadero BART / Muni stations. I don't think it would be possible in the year 2014 to do much better -- it would take a century of land acquisition, environmental review, and approvals to build a new commuter rail system and terminal anywhere else.

http://archived.ggrm.org/about_the_m.../peninsula.htm
http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Bernal_Cut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...tation_Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fra...kland_Railroad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrain