TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

This is partially in response to Clem’s excellent article about the importance of timetables. I do agree with most of what he says, however I’d like to add one point to the discussion: He makes it sound a bit as if CAHSR and Caltrain would compete, not cooperate - thus the argument that CAHSR trains might “block” Caltrain from running a proper timetable.

However, if we have CAHSR “locals” running over those tracks, say at a half-hourly interval, with timetables that are coordinated with Caltrain locals and are offering those zero-wait transfers at RWC (or wherever), then there should in fact not even be a need for Caltrain express trains? The CAHSR trains can fulfill that function. But for that to work it is very important that fares and timetables are coordinated, i.e. if I have a ticket for San Jose - San Francisco, I should be able to use any train on the route.

I never noticed this before, so I think this is new - the following two photos show the signals at the Castro Street crossing in Mountain View.

If you look closely, you will see that the signals are dark in the first picture:

But a couple of minutes later, with a train approaching (and the sun is out, too, but I doubt that that is the reason ), the signals are now showing aspects:

Now I’ve seen this elsewhere before, but not on Caltrain. Or did I just never pay attention?