AMTRAK CAPITOL CORRIDOR

SAN JOSE LIGHT RAIL BLUE LINE

SACRAMENTO LIGHT RAIL GOLD LINE

AMTRAK CASCADES CORRIDOR

CAL-TRAIN LOCAL SERVICE

CAL-TRAIN LIMITED STOP SERVICE
BART RED LINE

BART YELLOW LINE

BART GREEN LINE

BART ORANGE LINE

BART BLUE LINE

TRI-MET PORTLAND STREET CAR
TRI-MET PORTLAND BLUE LINE

TRI-MET PORTLAND YELLOW LINE

TRI-MET PORTLAND RED LINE

SOUND TRANSIT – TACOMA LINK STREET CAR

SOUND TRANSIT – SOUNDER COMMUTER TRAIN – TACOMA LINE

SOUND TRANSIT – SOUNDER COMMUTER TRAIN – EVERETT LINE

 

EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 31, 2005:

 

AMTRAK – CAPITOL CORRIDOR:

 

There are no train schedule changes for this timetable, however, the timetable changes that occurred on June 6, 2005 and June 25, 2005 become formalized with this message.  All trains serving San Jose, seven days a week add the Oakland Coliseum stop.  In addition, two Oakland only weekday morning round-trips and an additional southbound morning train were extended to the Coliseum. On Saturday and Sunday, one additional round-trip was extended to the Coliseum station.

 

SAN JOSE LIGHT RAIL BLUE LINE:

 

With the recent extension of Green Line Service earlier this fall, Service along the mid-section of the Blue Line was doubled with the Green Line Overlap. The schedules of all blue line trains were restrung to accommodate the extended Green Line trains, so that the schedules fit together efficiently through the downtown San Jose area between the Japantown/Ayer and Convention Center stations.

 

SACRAMENTO LIGHT RAIL GOLD LINE:

 

Sacramento Light Rail opened their third new segment on the Gold Line, which extends the line from Sunrise Boulevard station in the Gold River/Rancho Cordova area to Orangevale and Folsom. Service on this line segment is provided every thirty minutes.  Standard 15-minute service is provided throughout the day from Downtown Sacramento to Sunrise Boulevard. Every other train will turn-back at Sunrise Boulevard station.

 

CAL-TRAIN LOCAL SERVICE:

 

With the ever-expanding number of non-Amtrak service operators, particularly in California, where new Light Rail Services are emerging, and existing systems are being extended, it has become necessary to spread the non-Amtrak operations evenly among the three timetable update messages.  Discussions on Limited-Local and Baby Bullet services have been transferred to the Surfliner Update Message. In August, some of the weekday local service was redistributed, and the stop at Paul Avenue has been suspended with no replacement service.  Weekday Rush Hour service at the Atherton and Broadway stations have been replaced by thruway bus service. Weekend trains continue to stop at both of these stations. Additional Links have been added in the Commuter Rail Services Schedules Index Page to accommodate the recent additions of Baby Bullet Express “B” train service and the new Limited-Local service trains.  On Saturdays, the earliest trips in each direction have been rescheduled to fill the evening gaps between 8:00PM and 10:00PM in San Francisco or 10:30PM in San Jose.  After two months on the new schedule, some service, particularly to the Tamien Station in south San Jose has proven to be unreliable, so a new timetable was, therefore, issued that took effect on October 10, 2005 that corrected most of the San Jose Diridon Station peak travel time congestion issues where there were too many trains scheduled to arrive in the station and not enough track space or platforms to service all of the trains on this route.

 

CAL-TRAIN LIMITED STOP SERVICE:

 

This section will discuss the general limited-stop service. For a description of limited-local service trains, please see the Surfliner service changes summary.

 

Like the evening locals, most of the peak hour limited stop trains had a fairly substantial amount of restringing made on their schedules.

 

AMTRAK CASCADES CORRIDOR:

 

Earlier this year, the schedule times on southbound train #517, from Vancouver British Columbia were adjusted between Bellingham and Seattle to allow the Customs and Immigration officials to perform their duties at the border more efficiently.  This message formalizes those changes.

 

The usual amount of additional Thanksgiving service will be provided again this year.

 

SOUND TRANSIT – SOUNDER COMMUTER RAIL:

 

SNOHOMISH COUNTY/EVERETT LINE:

 

On June 5, 2005, the Sounder introduced its second round-trip to Everett consisting of earlier service in both directions.

 

KING/PIERCE COUNTIES/TACOMA LINE:

 

On September 26, 2005, the Tacoma Line saw the introduction of its fourth round-trip consisting of later northbound morning service and earlier southbound afternoon service.

 

At the same time, likewise, Sounder officially introduced the use of Train Numbers on their public timetables.  1500-series trains operate from Seattle to Tacoma, and eventually, to Lakewood.  1700-series trains operate to Everett and Edmonds, and there will be an eventual station in Mukilteo.  On this website, the Sounder Schedules have shown the train numbers as a measure of consistency, since the schedules for all of the other Operators that I have posted have the train numbers. 

 

BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISCTRICT:

 

Every fall, it has been customary to include the BART System in the split format, with some route service changes being discussed in the San Joaquin Route service changes summary and others in the Capitol Corridor Route service changes summary.  However, for this Fall only, since the BART information was not available at press time for the San Joaquin Route Summary, discussion on the Blue and Yellow Lines, which were customarily displayed in the San Joaquin Route Service Changes Summary will be discussed with the Capitol Corridor Service changes summary.  On September 13, 2005, BART reconfigured their west-bay service (the service that operates between San Francisco’s Embarcadero Station and Millbrae via Daly City and San Francisco Airport).  Most west-bay service operates only as far as the Daly City Station, as shown in the change summaries, to fit the new Blue Line Schedules into the mix between Bay Fair in San Leandro and Daly City station, all of the other lines had to be restrung to allow this.

 

RED LINE:

 

The Peak service extension that previously ran to the San Francisco International Airport and Millbrae is discontinued. All south/westbound trains now terminate at Daly City.

 

YELLOW LINE:

 

Yellow Line service operates only between Pittsburg/Bay Point station and Daly City. The service south of Daly City is transferred to the Blue Line.

 

GREEN LINE:

 

The entire Green Line schedule has been restrung, so that the rescheduled Blue, Yellow, and Red Line trains work harmoniously with Green Line service between the West Oakland and Daly City Stations. It has also been restrung to work harmoniously with Orange Line trains between Fremont and Lake Merritt Stations in conjunction with the new Blue Line service.

 

ORANGE LINE:

 

Orange Line service has been restrung to work harmoniously with the rescheduled Red, Yellow, and Blue Line trains between Richmond and Bay Fair stations and with the re-timed Green Line schedules into Fremont.

 

BLUE LINE:

 

For the first time since the Airport service was inaugurated several years ago, the Blue Line has once again seen the most substantial service changes.  The September 2005 service change saw the reinstatement of through service to Millbrae via the San Francisco Airport.  Westbound trains will, therefore, now use track #3 at the Daly City station since they become run through.

 

TRI-MET RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE LINES:

 

Tri-Met has no substantial changes to report in terms of scheduled service for the fall, however, a fare increase is being planned to off-set the unusually heightened levels of fuel and electricity pricing in recent months.

 

PORTLAND STREET CAR:

 

Although no changes occurred on the eastern end of the route in terms of initial terminal points, the route was extended on the western end from Portland State University to River Place.  This required all of the schedules to be restrung. Three new streetcars from Skoda Rail Car Company were introduced to the fleet as part of this extension. A further extension is planned sometime in 2006.  Light Rail schedules in the downtown area on Blue, Red, and Yellow Lines, as well as the vintage Street Car were restrung to facilitate timed transfers at the Library/Yamhill and Galleria stations.

 

SOUND TRANSIT – TACOMA LINK STREET CAR:

 

There are no substantial changes to report to the new Tacoma Link Street Car service.

 

SEATTLE TRANSIT TUNNEL:

 

Transit Service in the Seattle Transit Tunnel is temporarily suspended while the tunnel gets retrofitted to accommodate both buses and Light Rail Trains.  The tunnel will reopen to buses in the fall of 2007.  Watch for an update.  In the mean time, however, buses are operating from various surface level bus stops.

 

THRUWAY MOTORCOACH SERVICE:

 

DONNER PASS:

 

Since full-sized Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches no longer operate to or from Grass Valley, this route, beginning with this service change summary and onward will now be labeled as “DONNER PASS” since the route actually travels through the pass between Sacramento and Reno.

 

As has been customary, the Fall schedule change sees the return of the lengthened running times for the winter to allow for ice, snow, sleet, and frozen rain driving conditions. 

 

All westbound schedules except bus 3545 operate 20 to 30 minutes earlier departing from the John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada and serve all stations through to and including Colfax 20 to 30 minutes earlier. All buses arrive at stations Auburn through Sacramento, inclusive, without further schedule change.

 

Eastbound bus schedules have been lengthened to increase schedule reliability, particularly for the Highway 49 Express/Gold Country Stage connection at Auburn.  Eastbound buses arrive at all stations 5-to-25 minutes later.

 

With the exception of bus #3522 leaving Sacramento at 10:00AM, all other eastbound schedules remain unchanged.

 

GOLD COUNTRY/HIGHWAY 49:

 

The June 6, 2005 timetable has proven to have reliability issues; therefore, it was necessary to make some adjustments to these schedules.  Weekday bus #4927 departs Grass Valley 5 minutes earlier, while weekend bus #4979 arrives in Auburn 5 minutes later. Sunday bus #4987 departs Grass Valley 10 minutes later, and weekday bus #4949 departs Grass Valley 10 minutes earlier.

 

All of the other westbound service schedules are unchanged.

 

Eastbound, due to the Donner Pass Route winter schedule timings, two of the connections have been broken, therefore, while Amtrak does not show these buses in their timetables, when the Gold Country Stage schedules are posted to Trainweb on the Thruway buses site, buses 4922 and 4928 will be listed there, they are not legal connections from the Amtrak buses.  Bus #4934 becomes daily, replacing former weekend bus #4984, leaving Auburn 15 minutes later and arriving in Grass Valley 25 minutes later. Weekday bus #4938 operates 3 minutes later from Auburn and arrives in Grass Valley 10 minutes later. Weekend bus #4988 also arrives in Grass Valley 5 minutes later.

 

LAKE TAHOE/CARSON CITY:

 

The Lake Tahoe route schedules have also been lengthened for the winter, with all buses operating 20-30 minutes earlier from Carson City or Lake Tahoe to Placerville, with no change to their Sacramento arrivals.

 

Eastbound, with the exception of bus #3422 departing from Sacramento 5 minutes later at 10:00AM, all of the other eastbound schedules are largely unchanged.

 

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY:

 

Santa Cruz Metro adjusted their schedule to make better connections with Cal-Train and the Altamont Commuter Express, as well as the ever-expanding number of Amtrak trains and thruway buses on September 22, 2005.

 

CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO STATIONS:

 

The only change to report this time is the correction to a few departure times at Emeryville for westbound buses. This corrects the timetable errors in the summer timetable.  This route is also, largely, unchanged.

 

EAST BAY:

 

This route is temporarily being operated by Serendipity Land Yachts.  There are no schedule changes on the southbound buses. Bus #6140 operates 5 minutes later from Fremont to Oakland. All of the other northbound schedules are largely unchanged.  This route is likely to be discontinued in the summer or fall of 2006 when the Capitol Corridor extends more of their trains through to San Jose.

 

 

 

CENTRAL COAST/SAN JOSE:

 

 

The King City stop as previously noted; has been moved from Carl’s Junior to McDonald’s on Broadway Circle.  Other than this change, there are no schedule adjustments. AmericanStar Tours is operating the route on an interim basis while the contract is being re-bid.