Caltrain has been pissing me off recently. First of all, they have a new fare structure, a typical Caltrain sort of thing to do. That is to say, it's typically the sort of brain-dead logic you expect to hear from them. First of all, they want to move to proof-of-payment based ticketing, meaning passengers buy their tickets from machines before boarding. I agree with this, it makes sense. However, they want to simplify the fare structure by reducing the number of zones, and that is what I have a problem with.
As far as I can tell, the theory behind zones is simple. The more you have, the more the fares are logical. The less you have, the more arbitrary the fares are. Caltrain's new seven zone system certainly seems less than idea. Your monthly ticket for your 10 mile trip may cost almost $40 a month more than someone else's, if you cross a zone and he doesn't. Not only that, the reasoning behind it was to simplify the zone system. This is stupid, because now all the zone calculations can be handled by a machine, since Caltrain is going to a proof-of-payment system. A quote from the article:
The zone system is a 19th-century arrangement, said Richard Silver, executive director of the Rail Passenger Association of California. The system was devised so conductors would not have to memorize so many different fares.My ticket will be $20 a month more expensive. And I'm getting substantially less service now, since they've stopped with the weekend trains. This sucks.
Caltrain's service is pissing me off as well. I ride home everyday on an express train, which zips me straight to my destination with no stops in between. But yesterday was a game day, so on game days Caltrain just pokes along at what feels like 20 mph. It's very frustrating to be on a very slow express train.
You know, BART doesn't have these problems. BART is expensive, sure, but it's good. It always is fast. It doesn't have to wait on other trains to leave the station like Caltrain often does. There's no problem like bad signaling or broken down crossing gates. No one (to my knowledge) gets killed by BART. It runs late, and trains come often. You don't have to wait in the cold blowing wind for a train, like I have to wait in South San Francisco. You don't have to cover your ears when the train pulls into the station. The ride isn't bumpy. Noisy, yes, but not bumpy. The interesting thing is, Caltrain supporters agree with all this, but still prefer Caltrain because it is cheap. Yes, I'd have to agree. It is cheap. And it feels that way too.
Posted by ahyatt at April 15, 2003 09:28 AM