EDITORIAL: Midpeninsula wins, loses on Caltrain EDITORIAL: Midpeninsula wins, loses on Caltrain (May 04, 2005)

Left with few alternatives to make up a $13.6 million deficit, Caltrain officials have sidestepped the public outcry and carried out their plan to drop service to Atherton and two other lightly used stops for at least a year.

The news was better for Menlo Park, which will now be a Baby Bullet stop for three northbound and three southbound trains every weekday, all heading to or from San Jose.

Caltrain officials have said that the bullet trains are much more efficient and produce more revenue because they attract more riders and make fewer fuel-consuming stops. When service begins in August, 96 trains per day will pass through Menlo Park, and it will mark the first time Menlo Park riders will be able to board a Baby Bullet train at their own station.

For Atherton, which has been served by the trains for more than a century, the news was grim. For even though many residents saw the hand-writing on the wall, the decision nevertheless dismayed the community, whose leaders have done everything possible to keep the Atherton stop in the schedule. City Council member Jim Janz, who spearheaded the campaign to retain service, said: "To say we are disappointed is an understatement. We feel like we've been run over by a train."

It is hard not to sympathize with Mr. Janz and others who worked hard to keep their home station open. But sadly, local milk-run trains that serve few passengers are not the future for Caltrain, which is increasingly pressed to produce more revenue and lower the amount of subsidy paid by San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

In addition to raising fares, the latest Caltrain strategy is to more than double the number of Baby Bullet trains, which have been running at capacity, and that means stops at only four of the highest ridership stations between San Francisco and San Jose. Milk-run trains will serve half the line's stations, and then become a nonstop express for the remainder of the trip.

There is no certainty that Caltrain's new strategy will succeed. Many potential Baby Bullet morning riders headed to San Francisco from Menlo Park will have to board in Palo Alto or Redwood City. And disgruntled Atherton riders may simply stop riding the train altogether, even if some sort of shuttle service to a nearby train station is offered as promised.

Whatever the outcome, residents should not forget that Caltrain is the Midpeninsula's only rail transit option now and for the foreseeable future. And although service changes take many years, the next two decades could bring a Dumbarton Bridge rail connection, grade separations in Menlo Park and Atherton, and electrification.

And, if a high-speed rail link is ever built to Los Angeles, certainly a long-shot in today's economy, it would dramatically change the landscape around the Caltrain corridor, a development that would make last month's developments pale by comparison.

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