Tag: caltrain

Super Bowl 50 (Transit Hell) Week

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Both Super Bowl 50 teams have landed and are in their hotels. This is the start “Super Bowl Week” where Sunday’s game will be hyped up. All this week, many football celebration events in San Francisco and San Jose will take place. These are detailed in the Super Bowl 50 transit guide just finished.

Monday’s Super Bowl 50 activities culminate with Super Bowl Opening Night at SAP Center in San Jose. The transit guide to SAP Center details all train and bus alternatives to driving and parking hassles.

Even with extra trains added, expect standing room only (SRO) conditions on BART, Caltrain, and especially VTA light rail as fans shuttle between events in San Jose and San Francisco. If you frequently use these transit agencies, allow extra travel time this week. If possible, leave early so that you avoid these crowds.

Also, expect standing-room only conditions on VTA bus lines serving downtown San Jose like the 522 Rapid, 323 limited stop, 22 and 64.

Keep up with the transit alerts in the San Jose area by following @svtransitupdts on Twitter.

More info later this week…

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

Happy Birthday, Dr. King, Jr.

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b/w photo of Dr. King, Jr. against American flag

Source: chatcentralgateway.com

Today, we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Transit agencies such as Caltrain, VTA and SamTrans will run on a regular weekday schedule. However, the Altamont Corridor Express will run on a modified schedule.  This modified schedule has three southbound trains for the morning hour and three northbound trains in the evening rush hour.

To celebrate and honor Dr. King, Jr., several events from San Jose to San Francisco will take place.

San Mateo will have a Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at its Caltrain station starting at 8:30am. It will end at around 10:30am when the special Caltrain “Celebration Train” is due to arrive to pick up passengers going to the celebration parade in San Francisco.  That parade in San Francisco starts at the Caltrain Station at 4th/King at around 11am, when the “Celebration Train” arrives. The parade ends at the Yerba Buena Center a few blocks away, where the rest of the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration activities will take place.

I leave you with the full (as possible) audio Dr. King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963…

In some ways, the Dream must still be realized. We can still realize Dr. King, Jr.’s dream – and more – when we work together.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

Breaking In the New Levi’s (Stadium)

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levisstadium

(photo courtesy @SJEarthquakes)

Tonight at 7:30pm, the first sporting event at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara will take place when the San Jose Earthquakes host Seattle Sounders FC in a soccer match.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has bus and light rail information to get fans to and from Levi’s Stadium for tonight’s soccer match.

Make sure you get to the stadium as early as possible to beat the expected traffic gridlock. About 45,000 fans are expected for tonight’s game. Also, strict security – including strict bag check policies – will be in effect.

I will personally be at tonight’s game taking VTA light rail, to observe how everything.

If you are going to tonight’s game, please stay safe and sane, and have fun.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

Caltrain To/From SF Suspended

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At around 8:30am this morning, word went out that all northbound Caltrain service was being turned back at Bayshore station. The cause of this was unexpected time overrun on a railroad bridge replacement project in San Francisco Friday night that was due to end early Saturday morning, before the first northbound trains reached San Francisco.

As of 1pm, Caltrain is running shuttle buses from the 4th & King station to the Powell Street BART station. Caltrain is also advising passengers to transfer to BART at the Millbrae station and take any East Bay-bound train to San Francisco.

No ETA yet on when full Caltrain service to and from San Francisco will resume.