Did You Survive the South Bay Caltrain Schedule Change?

Well, it came and went and I'm sure that Caltrain is happier about their schedule change, as now, they have trains closer to capacity that head on out to Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy. But did YOU survive the change?

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Back in early October, the Bay Area's Caltrain Commuter Service swapped a few train lines around, eliminating their late train to Gilroy, and adding an earlier train to the distant city.  But even though they eliminated the latest train route, they did not move their morning train lines up to help folks potentially compensate for their work schedules being mucked with.

Albeit it, I'm sure not many people were impacted, but I've tallied up about a dozen that I've chatted with plus my own schedule became pretty impacted by the change, on multiple levels.

What I've noticed is that the SB 268, now the latest train out to parts south and Gilroy, is much more crowded, which I'm sure, Caltrain is happy about. If you think about it, running a one-third full train out to Gilroy late at night is not economically sound.

So I get that.

Caltrain's Tamien Station Is Losing That Big Parking Lot!

A few stops had service removed, via much earlier trains now going south, but there were alternatives for those riders, though from what I can tell, some have lost the ability to take the train all the way from Gilroy now. Instead, they drive to Tamien. BUT...

There's a project ramping up that will be putting buildings in the location that large parking lot on the east side of the Tamien Caltrain Station is, making parking totally frucked when that station starts getting updated. Yes, they'll be providing alternative locations to park, but the west side of the station is a massive cluster frack in the morning, so you best prepare for five to ten minute earlier drives to deal with that traffic. It really is ugly on that side.

Other folks have made adjustments to the new Caltrain schedule, but some have been mucked with as far as their afternoon or evening schedules. I have been restricted to not being able to stay at work later than normal or I'll be facing sizable Uber bills to get home past Tamien or San Jose. And others I know no longer have good options for taking the train so they've been driving just in case they have to stay late or other work induced events.

As far as I'm concerned, the crowded trains don't do my social anxiety any good, so there's that.

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