Caltrain to add 10 baby bullets

"Instead of cutting a great service to reduce our deficit, we have adjusted to meet the needs of today's commuters. Providing them with a shorter commute will give them more time for themselves," Caltrain board chair Mike Nevin said in a statement.

Baby Bullet trains offer express travel service between San Jose and San Francisco. The trains are popular with passengers because they nearly cut the commute time in half, according to the Caltrain Web site.

The 10 new trains will bring Caltrain's total fleet of Baby Bullets to 22, McGovern reported.

Combined with Caltrain's normal service trains, the number of weekday trains will be at an all time high of 96, according to McGovern.

Baby Bullet trains are scheduled to stop at the San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, and Tamien stations in addition to those already receiving the service, Caltrain reported.

The new stops are being matched with two new schedule patterns.

The first pattern has Baby Bullets picking up passengers at the San Jose Diridon, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Hillsdale, Millbrae, and 22nd Street stations before reaching the Fourth Street station in San Francisco.

The second pattern has the train making stops at Tamien, San Jose Diridon, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, San Mateo, Millbrae, and 22nd Street stations before ending at the Fourth Street station in San Francisco. However, some stations only receive service during "traditional-peak" and "reverse-commute" hours only, Caltrain reported.

As for local service, trains leaving San Francisco and San Jose will make limited stops until they reach Redwood City, according to Caltrain. Once the train leaves the Redwood City station, it will make local stops for the remainder of the trip.

But the benefit of faster trips for most commuters comes with a cost for some riders.

According to McGovern, about 4 percent of existing riders will need to transfer trains to get to their final destinations as a result of the new service patterns.

Caltrain representatives will be on deck at the Broadway, Redwood City, and Atherton stations Aug. 1 to help riders with the transfers, McGovern said.

Service to three stations - Paul Avenue in San Francisco, Broadway in Burlingame and Atherton - was suspended on weekdays, though Caltrain will continue to serve the latter two stations on weekends.

Free shuttles will take riders between the Broadway and Millbrae stations and between Atherton and Redwood City during the weekday peak period, with funding provided by the San Mateo County Transportation Authority.

Consequently SamTrans will change 14 bus routes that serve San Mateo County Caltrain stations Aug. 1.

Timetables are available online at www.samtrans.com. Copies of the new schedule are available on the trains, at staffed stations, and on-line at www.caltrain.com. Riders can also call 1-800-660-4287 to hear the new schedule.