Great News for Bay Area Commuters!!

Caltrain has announced the addition of a third bike car to their bombardier trains!  They won't be quite ready until later this year, but this is still a huge win for anyone who has ever been left in the cold, late to work, or stuck waiting another hour when trains were too full of bikes.  

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition was the driving force behind this, along with their program to have riders report bumps - which it seems like enough people have done since there's a chance being made.  

Recently there's also been a change in the way that Caltrain deals with bike cars - more Caltrain employees are actively preventing people without bikes to stay out of the bike cars (which is greatly appreciated) and there are a few who try to get as many bikes as possible on the train so people can get to work on time, even if it is against policy.  Please remember that if you do get bumped, these people are just trying to do their jobs!  I know quite a few who are cyclists themselves, and who advocated strongly for more bike space on the crowded trains.  

The bombardier cars are smaller, and only hold 24 bikes as opposed to the original 48.  The original cars can be packed with a lot more if needed though...

From SF Streetsblog.  Yes, this happens.  

Whereas the bombardier cars:

Image via Beyond DC

With seats in the middle, there's only a small amount of room on either side to store your bike.  Old trains can carry a total of 96 bikes currently, the bombardiers 48, so bumping that number to 72 will help immensely.  

If you get bumped from a train, please please please report it!  As you can see, it does make a difference.  You can follow the links here to do so.