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Riding the Entire Bay Area Rapid Transit System and A Caltrain Baby Bullet 8/24/2005

I walked up 12th street in Oakland to the Oakland City Center/12th Street station and descended the staircase into the first level then purchased a BART ticket from here to the Embarcadero station in San Francisco. I would get there later this afternoon as I was going to ride the whole Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. As long as I did not go through an exit turnstile, I would not have to buy another ticket and it would be just a platform transfer from each line. After I found the correct platform level for Fremont, I first watched a Daly City train arrive.

BART serves 50 stations along six routes and 131 miles of track and is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District which formed in 1957. The initial system opened in stages from 1972 to 1974 and has been extended several times. The stations are in Alameda County (22), Contra Costa County (12), San Francisco (8) and San Mateo County (6). BART operates five named heavy rail services, all of which run through Oakland, and all but the Orange Line cross the bay through the Transbay Tube to San Francisco. All five services run every day until 9:00 PM pm.

The Orange Line, opened in 1972, goes from Fremont/North San José to Richmond. The Yellow Line, opened in 1973, travels from San Francisco (and after 9:00 pm, Millbrae) to Pittsburg. The Green Line, opened the following year, stretches from Daly City to Fremont. The fourth BART line, Blue Line, commenced operations in 1997 and runs from Daly City to Dublin/Pleasanton. The gauge of all lines is 5 feet 6 inches, also known as broad gauge.

My BART train from Richmond arrived and I boarded.

The interior of a BART cab car, built by Bombardier. Leaving here, you remain in a subway until after Lake Merritt when you rise to an elevated structure for the rest of the journey. We stopped at the Fruitvale, Coliseum/Oakland Airport, San Leandro, Bay Fair, Hayward, South Hayward, Union City and then lastly, Fremont. I met a BART employee who gave me a quick history of the system, the cars and information about elevator repair problems.

At Fremont, I boarded this BART train on the Orange Line to Bay Fair.

The interior of one of the middle BART cars. I took this eight-car train, retracing my route to Bay Fair, where I detrained to wait for my next train to Dublin.

My BART train departed for Richmond.

My eight-car Blue Line train for Dublin arrived. We climbed up and over the Fremont Line and ran down the middle of the Interstate 580 to Castro Valley station and stayed in the middle of the freeway to ascend the Oakland Hills. We reached the summit before descending between the hills into the Livermore Valley and our route passed under the interchange with Interstate 680 before arriving at Dublin/Pleasanton station.

At Dublin, my eight-car train changed into a four-car Blue Line train for San Francisco. I boarded and retraced my route to Bay Fair to wait for a three-car train for Richmond. The only other times I had ridden BART was at the 1992 National Railway Historical Society convention in San José wen I made an Embarcadero-to-Richmond round trip, and when I rode round trip from Richmond to the Coliseum to see Nolan Ryan pitch his last game in Oakland, which he won.

I returned through the Oakland City Center station before we stopped at the also underground 19th/Oakland station then returned to the sunshine at MacArthur station. We went under the Baypoint Line before we continuing to the underground stations at Ashby, Downtown Berkeley and North Berkeley. Returning to the surface, we stopped at El Cerrito Plaza, El Cerrito del Norte and then Richmond, where one could connect to Amtrak. I detrained here to return to MacArthur.

My BART train arriving at Richmond from the storage yard less than a minute after I detrained and I took this Orange Line train to MacArthur and had to go downstairs to transfer and found a bathroom then returned upstairs to wait for my train to Bay Point.

My Yellow Line train for Pittsburg/Bay Point arrived and we stopped at Rockridge on the way and turned to run down the middle of Highway 24 towards the Oakland hill then left the freeway and plunged into the long Oakland Hills tunnel. Upon exiting, we stopped at Orinda then back in the middle of Highway 24, we descended to Lafayette. Mount Diablo came into view to the forward right then at the Highway 24/Interstate 680 Interchange, we left the freeway as we arrived at the elevated Walnut Creek station, after which we returned to the ground for a short time before climbing back into the air at Pleasant Hill. We passed the Concord BART yard before arriving at Concord then ran in a trench to the North Concord/Martinez station. Our route took us down the middle of Highway 4, climbing through more hills to Pittsburg/Bay Point.

My train after it dropped me off then pulled down to switch tracks and the operator changed ends. It was really noisy standing there waiting with all the Highway 4 traffic speeding by the station. I would now ride through Downtown Oakland where I would then be on a short section of old mileage over to Embarcadero. We exited from the Downtown Oakland tunnel and climbed onto an elevated structure to the West Oakland station, where there were good views of the harbour cranes then crossed the Union Pacific and the Union Pacific's West Oakland Shops before plunging into the Transbay Tube under San Francisco Bay down in the mud beneath. That took about six minutes and we arrived at Embarcadero station, followed by Montgomery Street, Powell Street, Civic Center, 16th Street Mission, 24th Mission and Glen Park, all underground.

Returning to daylight by the Balboa Park station, located in a trench, then out into full daylight to the Daly City station, we continued along Interstate 280 then passed the Daly City Shops to Colma. Here we turned east, crossing the peninsula back towards the San Francisco Bay and entered a tunnel with South San Francisco and San Bruno stations located inside. We continued underground, only to become elevated the rest of our route into the San Francisco International Airport, where the Airtrain connects to other terminals. We then reversed directions and exited the airport to a switch that took us down to run underground to Caltrain's Millbrae station. Here, connections can easily be made with Caltrain towards San José. Once my train stopped at this station, I had ridden the entire BART system.

My BART train at Millbrae. I returned to Embarcadero station for my next rail adventure.

A BART train approaching Embarcadero station in San Francisco. The total cost for this trip on BART was $2.55.

A westbound BART train arrived, after which I walked upstairs to the MUNI station to purchase my "N" Line ticket to the Caltrain station.

This is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system and is named after Judah Street that it runs along for much of its length, named after railroad engineer Theodore Judah. It links downtown San Francisco to the Cole Valley and Sunset neighborhoods and provides rail access to Golden Gate Park. Originally, it was one of San Francisco's streetcar lines, beginning operation in 1928 and was partially converted to modern light-rail operation with the opening of the Muni Metro system in 1980. While many streetcar lines were converted to bus lines after World War II, the N Judah remained a streetcar line due to its use of the Sunset Tunnel.

One Muni train arrived after another and seven came in before mine arrived at 3:02 PM. I boarded and once on the move a minute later, we exited the tunnel and proceeded to Folsom Station under the Bay Bridge, where there was a good view of Oakland across the bay. We next stopped at Brannan station next to Pier 36 and I could see why this is called the Bayfront Line. We ran by SBC Ballpark, home of the San Francisco Giants, before stopping at the 2nd/King Street station then continued to the last stop at this time, at the Caltrain station, where I detrained. In the near future, this line will continue on.

My trolley, 1466A, at the Caltrain station.

Another trolley waiting to return to the city.

In June 2004, Caltrain finished its two-year Caltrain Express project for a new express service called the Baby Bullet. The project entailed new bypass tracks in Brisbane and Sunnyvale as well as a new centralized traffic control system. The Baby Bullet trains reduced travel time by stopping at only four or five stations between San Francisco and San Jose Diridon station; the express trains could overtake local trains at the two locations (near Bayshore and Lawrence stations) where passing loops were added. Travel time for about 46.75 miles between San Francisco and San Jose is 57 minutes (four stops), 59 minutes (five stops) or 61 minutes (six stops), compared to 1 hour 30 minutes for local trains.

The Baby Bullets have the same top speed of 79 mph as other trains, but fewer stops save time. The project included the purchase of new Bombardier bi-level coaches along with MPI MP36PH-3C locomotives and proved popular, but many riders had longer commutes on non-bullet trains, some of which would wait for Baby Bullet trains to pass.

The motive power line-up at the Caltrain station from the fence. I went straight to the ticket window to buy my ticket for Baby Bullet 362 then waited at the gate for boarding time. The train would leave San Francisco at 4:00 PM and be at Millbrae at 4:16 PM, San Mateo 4:22 PM, Redwood City 4:33 PM, Palo Alto 4:39 PM, Sunnyvale 4:49 PM and San José at 4:59 PM; or 59 minutes for the 46.9 mile trip. On the other hand, Train 268, a Limited making 17 stops at 4:27 PM, takes one hour and twenty minutes. Train 158, at 3:07 PM, takes one hour and thirty-two minutes with 23 stops for the same 46.9 miles, so you see the advantage of Caltrain's Baby Bullet.

At 3:50 PM, the doors were opened and the passengers rushed for their seats on the 4:00 PM Baby Bullet and I made my way to the front of the train.

Caltrain MP36PH-3C 925 built by Motive Power Industries in 2003.

My Baby Bullet 362 ready to depart to San José at 4:00 PM. Our train had MP36PH-3C 922, coach 3826, cab car 4012, coaches 3813 and 3852 with cab car 4018 bringing up the rear. I chose an upstairs seat in car 3826 and we departed on time, rounding the large curve to the south and entered Tunnel 1, followed by Tunnel 2. Nine minutes later, we entered Tunnel 3 then Tunnel 4 before passing the former location of Southern Pacific's Bayshore Yards then skipped the stations at 22nd Street, Bayshore, South San Francisco and San Bruno.

We arrived at Millbrae where a sizeable group of connecting passengers from BART boarded. Our train skipped Burlingame before making our way to San Mateo and our next sprint would bypass Hayward Park, Hillsdale, Belmont and San Carlos before our arrival at Redwood City. We then missed Menlo Park before Palo Alto and continued to Sunnyvale, ignoring California Avenue, San Antonio and Mountain View, where the VTA Light Rail Line connects with the Caltrain Line. From Sunnyvale, we ran express to San José, skipping Lawrence, Santa Clara and College Park. In the yard at Santa Clara, the Red Unit of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus Train was on hand for shows in San José.

Baby Bullet 362 arrived on time at 4:59 PM and paused before it continued to Tamien. I went into the station to pick up some snacks before returning to the platform.

Altamont Commuter Express F40PH-3C 3102, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1997, was ready to go Stockton.

Baby Bullet 373 departed on time at 5:26 PM bound for San Francisco.

Train 275 was a limited stop train and departed at 5:31 PM.

My Amtrak Capitol Corridor Train 544 and the ACE train waited for their departure.

This train had cab car 8312 "Mount Inyo", coach 6463 "Muir Beach" {Pacific Surfliner seats}, café 8813 "San Fernando" and 8011 "Yuba River" with F59PHI 2009. It was now time to sit back and relax and I bought a hot dog for dinner. We departed on time and went straight to the Great America station, where a large group of passengers boarded.

The beautiful late afternoon view looking east as we approached Drawbridge.

The sinking buildings at the ghost town of Drawbridge. It was then announced that since late-running Train 11, the Coast Starlight, and a stub train for Los Angeles were both in the station, we would be bypassing Oakland and continue to Emeryville, where passengers, including me, would be bussed back. I thought this idea was quite absurd since surely they could use the grade crossing at either end of the Oakland station to unload the passengers? After a few minutes, I had an idea. Since the Capitol Corridor trains now stop at the Oakland Coliseum station, I could detrain there and connect to BART back to 12th Street and would be back in the hotel by the time the train was at Emeryville.

During all this, we stopped at Fremont-Centerville, went through Niles and stopped at Haywood. Just as I was going to go downstairs to detrain at the Coliseum stop, it was announced that we would now be stopping at Oakland. Each car would be opened, one at a time, starting with the cab car so I moved to there and we arrived in Oakland on time. I stepped off the train down onto the ballast and then onto the platform where I walked along the Coast Starlight to the north end.

My Capitol Corridor train unloaded car-by-car in the ballast with a Superliner stub train to Los Angeles and the terminated Coast Starlight. I was back at the Jack London Inn before the train rolled by outside and checked my e-mail before returning to my room for the night.

I was up at 6:15 AM and had a nice hot shower then checked my e-mail and watched the Weather Channel about Hurricane Katrina before checking out of the Jack London Inn and walking to the Oakland Amtrak station.

Union Pacific 4071 West came through as I waited for my Capitol Corridor train to Emeryville. Train 522 arrived eight minutes late and I boarded for a quick trip. Passing the Amtrak yards, I saw private cars "Silver Lariat" and "Plaza Santa Fe" on the rear of the California Zephyr, which I would be aboard on the Trains Unlimited Tours' "Domes to the Feather River Railroad Days". We then arrived a few minutes late.

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