Northbound. A broken rail near Morgan Hill, California delayed northbound Caltrain service this morning, with trains originating in Gilroy delayed up to an hour as passengers were bused around the breakage. Passengers crowded onto unfamiliar trains as dispatchers combined multiple routes into single trains. The break, which is also holding up freight rail traffic, was discovered early this morning by Union Pacific.

Fritz of Cyclelicious was among the first to tweet the breakage to the Caltrain Twitter feed and providing train delay information even before the platform announcements were made.

Today also marks the first time I’ve heard reasonably accurate delay announcements over the PA speakers at the train stations. In the past, the delays have always been very vague such as “expect delays of up to an hour.” This morning, the announcer actually announced train numbers and approximate delays in minutes! Kudos to Caltrain for this.

Southbound. Some southbound trains were also delayed after the engine on train 324 quit working. Southbound trains behind #24 were forced to wait while train number 226 coupled up to the disabled train to push it out of the way. Caltrain Tweeters report southbound trains are running as much as an hour late. If somebody has photos of the two trains #24 & #26 coupled together I’d love to see those pictures; please leave a link in the comments.

To receive real time updates on Caltrain issues on your phone, sign up to Twitter and “follow” Twitter Caltrain. Be sure also to set up Twitter and your mobile device to send and receive these updates from Twitter. An analogous bike car info service is Twitter Bike Car. Click here for information on how to contribute to these Twitter feeds.

The board of the directors of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition met over the weekend to create a response to the draft of the Bicycle Master Plan proposed by Caltrain. The SVBC put the position paper online and is seeking member input, both online and in person. The SVBC Board will have a meeting on Thursday July 10th at 6pm at Kapp’s Pizza Bar & Grill i Mountain View specifically for the purpose of discussing the Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan with the membership.

Activist Jym Dyer of San Francisco posted his thoughts to the SFBIKE list on the role of advocacy and what he believes should be done to improve the Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan. I reproduce them below with his permission. Remember, Caltrain is accepting comments on the draft plan until July 3.

Bikes on board is a success that built Caltrain’s ridership, enhanced its reputation, and has been studied by transit systems all over the nation. Yet Caltrain overlooked the fact that their newer trains will only hold half as many bikes, and again failed to give the program any consideration when working on the current “Bike Master Plan.” They didn’t even *try* to maintain, much less enhance, this program; in fact their stated goal is to achieve a bike rider share of 5%, which is terrible given that they have already achieved a share of 7%. (7% is a figure for
February and serves as an underestimate for warmer months.)

An activist’s role to provide vision and push to have it implemented. That’s exactly what Cap Thomas and others did to make bikes on board a reality, and then to make it a success. Our vision must include context that Caltrain is overlooking. Allow me to suggest three “big picture” puzzle pieces:

(1) A bike+train combination gets you door to door, making it the *only* option that matches the (heavily-subsidized) convenience of cars for these distances. That’s why bikes on board has been such a success. That’s why whittling away at this convenience with schemes like requiring two bikes and locker rentals, charging fees to reserve spaces, and the current failure to provide capacity, are all bad ideas.

(2) Bikers actually make the least demands on transit overall. Non-biking riders generally require parking, buses, and/or shuttles, burdening roads and/or transit systems. Usually the comparison is made between bikers “needing more” than other riders, but that only makes sense if the other riders are all walking at both ends of the train journey, and the number of people who can do that is extremely small — much smaller than the number who can bike at both ends.

(3) From the public meetings I attended, I got the feeling that this “master plan” is driven by the type of funding Caltrain goes after. They apply for “pilot” project grants, use them to try something out for 3 years or so, then let it whither. This results in disjoint, wasteful policy. I don’t see why
they can’t go after “project” grants to enhance an existing success story, taking a proactive role in making a case for it, if necessary.

Thursday, June 19 is free transit day in the San Francisco Bay Area. Transit will be free until noon on BART, Caltrain, ACE Train, Amtrak Capitol Corridor, and the Bay ferries. Transit will be free all day on all participating Bay Area bus and light rail providers. See this page for details.

I can’t decide whether to bring a folder and ride the train to take photos and video of the insanity, or to just enjoy myself and ride my bike the entire distance.

Which should I do? What will you do?

• Bring a folding bike and document the fun on Caltrain.
• Avoid Caltrain altogether and ride my bike the distance from San Jose to Palo Alto.

Help me decide!

There’s been a lot of discussion this week on the SVBC and SFBike lists about Caltrain’s Bicycle Master Plan. The first public is tonight in San Carlos; I plan to attend the Monday evening in Mountain View if I can get out of work early enough.

• Because transit connections to get commuters the last mile from the train station to work or home are often non-existent or poorly connected in the Bay Area, bicycles enable commuters to bridge that gap from home to the station and from the station to work. I can get to work without a bike, but doing this adds 30 minutes to my already long commute (from the walking and waiting for connections) and reduces my flexibility dramatically — I must leave work earlier and I get home later.
• Caltrain is getting very crowded with bicyclists and non-cyclists. Even trains that previously were nearly empty in the past are at capacity these days, especially on the bike cars.
• Caltrain claims they can’t increase bike capacity without reducing capacity for other passengers. Walking passengers are never bumped, though, even at the most crowded. If bike capacity is increased at the expense of seat space, there is still room for non-cycling passengers, even if many of them need to stand in the aisles (like cyclists are needing to do now).
• Caltrain estimates that boarding bikes adds about 250 hours of delay per year, because cyclists take longer to board than other passengers. The dramatic drop in on time performance in 2008 is probably due mostly to increased use of Caltrain by bicyclists.
• Caltrain plans to electrify by 2014, so they’re reluctant to simply add cars that will be unusable by Caltrain in a few years. Adding cars to diesel train consists also slows service and impacts schedules.
• According to Caltrain, about 9% of train commuters ride their bikes to Caltrain, with 1 to 2% locking them at the station and the remainder bringing them on board. 37% drive to the station or are dropped off; 19% use other transit; 29% walk and 8% use a free shuttle.
• There are 1,900 bike parking spaces along the entire Caltrain system, which is not nearly enough these days. At San Jose Diridon Station, for example, there are 24 bike lockers and zero bike racks. Compare that to 600 car parking spots at that station. If we use the current ratio of 1 bike rider for every 3 motorists, there should be 200 bike parking spots at San Jose Diridon. Adding secure bike parking is very inexpensive compared to adding car parking, yet car parking is available at below market rates and even free at some stations.
• Many (most?) cyclists are unwilling to leave their bikes locked up overnight, and many are unable or unwilling to spend the money for a second bike, which is what would be required for many commuters to get to work.

Caltrain says they want to increase the number of cyclists biking to the train station, but because bike capacity on board is maxed out they want to encourage bike parking. Some of the other ideas they plan to present include bike sharing and a folding bike subsidy.

Caltrain bike pain elsewhere:

• Green Caltrain: “The Bicycle Master Plan, unfortunately, will be a big disappointment for some bicyclists who want to see more bike capacity on trains. The plan focuses primarily on bike parking issues. For various reasons, Caltrain is putting the controversial issue of bicycles on trains off the table.“
• 295Bus on the new Entry/Exit door labels on Caltrain Bombardier bike cars.
• Sub20OLH had been ranting a lot about Caltrain this last week:
  • A new day: “Caltrain needs some more funding – now. I definitely want them to get a little smarter – but the system is breaking down.“
  • Bumped: “I was late because I was bumped at Mountain View from the 5:03 train. I had to wait for the 5:37, and made it on but 10 others were bumped. That train then bumped 10 at Menlo, and 10 at Redwood City…“
  • Caltrain falling apart: “Why are they late? Dwell time is through the roof. Caltrain is surely blaming the cyclists. The conductors are surly. What is going on?“
  • Caltrain is falling apart: History.

• The Itinerant Cyclist goes bumpity bumpity: “Train 227 gets to Mountain View about 10 minutes late, I am early enough to catch it, but the house is over full so I take the gentle push to stay behind rather than fight for one of the spots standing in the vestibule. Train 231, my normal train, is due in just a few minutes anyway. Then 231 shows up with Bombardier equipment and only 1 bike car, so max of 16 bikes total on the train and there are 15 on the platform waiting to board. So it was waiting another 20 minutes for the next train, which had room for only 13 bikes and there were about 18 on the platform. But I fought this one out and got on that train.“
• San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Caltrain Bikes on Board information and Caltrain Campaign Page.
• Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan information.

First meeting Thursday, June 12 in Santa Rosa San Carlos

Nearly 2,400 customers bring their bikes on board Caltrain each weekday. Caltrain runs out of space these days as demand exceeds the space on board the trains.

In an effort to address this issue, Caltrain is developing a Bicycle Master Plan that focuses on ways to improve bike parking at its 10 most-popular stations. Over the last year, staff has conducted extensive surveys of existing bike parking facilities and solicited input from bicycle advisory groups and Caltrain bike riders.

Caltrain will hold three meetings to hear comments about its key findings and recommendations. The meetings will be held:

• Thursday, June 12 at 6 p.m.
  San Carlos Public Library, 2nd floor, meeting room A
  610 Elm St., San Carlos
• Monday, June 16 at 6 p.m.
  Mountain View City Hall, Plaza Conference Room
  500 Castro St., Mountain View
• Tuesday, June 17 at 6 p.m.
  Genentech Hall, Room S201
  University of California, San Francisco
  600 16th St., San Francisco

Now is the time to submit your comments regarding this plan. Click here to review key findings of the Bicycle Master Plan. To comment, attend one of the public meetings, send an e-mail to bikeplan@caltrain.com or write to Caltrain bicycle Master Plan, P.O. Box 3006, San Carlos, Ca 94070. Comments will be accepted through July 3.

Thursday, June 12 will be a Spare the Air day in the San Francisco Bay Area. Concentrations of ground-level ozone pollution are forecast to be unhealthy tomorrow. Clear skies, hot temperatures, and light winds will combine to produce poor air quality for the Bay Area. Commuters are asked to help prevent smog tomorrow by using public transit, walking or biking to work; using a carpool or vanpool; and telecommuting.

Unlike past years, public transportation is not free. The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission decided that providing free transit is not a cost effective way to reduce air pollution, with a cost of about $400,000 per ton of reduced emissions.

The SF MTC will provide one final free transit day on Thursday, June 19. With record ridership on all Bay Area transit systems and high demand because of gasoline prices, I’m calling this “avoid Caltrain day.”