page_title: Caltrain Express
section_title: Stops and scheduling
hierarchical_section_title: Caltrain Express / Design / Stops and scheduling
caption_attribution_description: Caltrain Locomotive Named after Jackie Speier
context_page_description: The Caltrain Express project was implemented from 2002 to 2004 and led to the establishment of the Baby Bullet express service, which shortened the transit time between San Francisco and San Jose, and certain stations in between. New locomotives and rolling stock were purchased for dedicated express service, bypassing most stations; quad-track overtake sections were added in two locations along the Peninsula Corridor right-of-way to allow express trains to pass slower local trains that were making all stops; tracks were also upgraded with continuous-welded rail; a centralized traffic control system was added; and crossovers were added every few miles to allow single-tracking trains around disabled trains. Congresswoman Jackie Speier, then serving as a California State Senator, is credited with securing the funding for CTX and one of the new locomotives acquired for the project is named for her as a result. During commute hours, the Baby Bullet is up to 20% faster than driving south from San Francisco to San Jose.
context_section_description: Baby Bullet service launched in June 2004 with ten trains per weekday, which made only four intermediate stops between San Francisco 4th & King Street and San Jose Diridon: Millbrae, Hillsdale, Palo Alto, and Mountain View. The ten trains consisted of three northbound and two southbound trains in the morning, and three southbound and two northbound trains in the afternoon; the two southbound morning trains and two northbound afternoon trains made additional stops at 22nd Street to serve reverse commuters. Since these trains operated with far fewer stops, they took only 57 minutes to travel between San Francisco and San Jose, compared to 96 scheduled minutes for local trains making all stops, even though the maximum train speed remained at 79 miles per hour (127 km/h).
  This cuts my commute so much that it's faster than driving.
  — Scott Hofmeister, Inaugural day interview with San Francisco-to-Mountain View commuter, June 7, 2004
  The revised schedule was the product of more than two hundred iterations, and added ten trains per weekday without increasing staffing because equipment was being used more efficiently. However, mid-day (off-peak) service was reduced at seven stations; trains used to stop every half hour, but the mid-day headway changed to every hour at 22nd Street, Bayshore, South San Francisco, Broadway, Hayward Park, Atherton, and Tamien. 
  Riders to stations not served by Baby Bullet service complained their commute times increased because their trains slowed to allow Baby Bullets to overtake. Clem Tillier noted ridership at stations not served by Baby Bullets continued to be depressed in the years following CTX implementation, and that elimination of Baby Bullet service under a planned 76-train schedule actually improved service quality. Caltrain had initially proposed trimming the schedule from 86 trains per weekday to 48 trains only during peak hours to close a budget gap in 2011, later refining the proposal to 76 trains per weekday and eliminating Baby Bullet service. However, one-time funds were diverted from other sources and no service cuts were made in 2011.
  In 2005, Caltrain expanded Baby Bullet service by adding two trains per weekday in May, and ten more trains per weekday in August, for a total of twenty-two Baby Bullet trains per weekday; the August schedule revision added express stops for certain "Pattern B" trains at San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, and Tamien. With this expansion, though, weekday service to the holdout-rule stations at Broadway and Atherton was dropped, the sparse weekday service to Paul Avenue was suspended entirely, and other trains operating during commute hours were changed from local-service, all-stop to limited service, skipping stops either between San Francisco and Redwood City, or between Redwood City and San Jose; Redwood City became a major transfer point for riders.
  In 2011, Caltrain added Baby Bullet service to weekend schedules. There were four weekend/holiday Baby Bullets per day (two in the mornings and two in the evenings), each making seven intermediate stops between 4th&King and Diridon: Millbrae, San Mateo, Hillsdale, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale; these stations were selected for their proximity to activities as probable leisure time destinations.
  Caltrain modified Pattern B trains to add a reverse-commute stop at Palo Alto in October 2012. With this change, all Baby Bullet trains stop at Palo Alto, regardless of pattern or direction. Caltrain shifted to a modified Pattern A on April 10, 2017 which added a reverse-commute stop at Redwood City. The revised schedule also extended service to Tamien for reverse-commute (southbound) Pattern B trains in the morning and California Ave for peak-direction (southbound) Pattern B trains in the afternoon.
  Caltrain service on weekends north of Bayshore was suspended and replaced by a bus bridge from October 2018 to March 2019 in order to accommodate tunnel notching work for the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project. Weekend Baby Bullet trains originated and terminated at Baysh
caption: MPI locomotive JPBX#925 is named for Jackie Speier.
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