Caltrain - Bicycle Access

Bicycle Access

Caltrain was one of the first commuter rail services to add bicycle capacity to its trains. On the older Nippon Sharyo gallery fleet, every cab car is designed to carry 40 bicycles. On the other hand, most cab cars on the newer Bombardier fleet are designed to carry 24 bicycles. As of 2011 every train includes two bicycle cars. Consequently, bike capacity on trains can range from 48 to 80 bicycles. Folding bicycles are not restricted and can be carried on any car when folded.

All bicycle rack-equipped cars are marked by a yellow bike decal on the outside. On board the bicycle cars, the cyclists are required to secure their bicycle to the rack using the bungee cord provided. Each rack can accommodate four bicycles. Because the bikes are stacked together against the racks, most riders place a destination tag on their bicycles to optimize placement and minimize shuffling.

The variation on bicycle capacity between trainsets has generated criticisms from the bicycling community, as cyclists are denied boarding when a train reaches its bicycle capacity. The Baby Bullet service, favored by many cyclists, is routinely operated with lower-bike capacity Bombardier cars and cyclists may be forced to wait for slower trains operated with higher-capacity gallery cars, or seek alternate transportation, such as driving.

Due to equipment rotation and maintenance concerns, Caltrain says it cannot dedicate cars with higher bike capacity on trains with high bike demand.

To provide an alternative to bringing bicycles on board the trains, Caltrain has installed bicycle lockers at most stations, and constructed a new bicycle station at the San Francisco station. A bicycle station was open at the Palo Alto station from April 1999 to October 2004, and reopened in February 2007. In early 2008, the Caltrain sponsored Warm Planet bicycle station opened at the 4th and Townsend terminus.

It has long been suggested that Caltrain could increase its bicycle capacity by removing some seats from bicycle cars. Initially Caltrain rejected this idea because some trains are operated at seated capacity and the seat removal would take space from other fare-paying passengers. But in early 2009, Caltrain reversed its position and announced that it would be expanding bicycle capacity by 8 spots by removing some seats in the bike cars, bringing bike capacity to 40 bikes on gallery cars and 24 bikes on Bombardier cars. The actual expansion started several months later. As of July 2009, the transition has been mostly completed.