20 People Missed the Train
About 20 people, including my wife and I, missed the 10:30pm train last night in San Jose because we couldn’t find what track it was on. We had a great time at the Barbra Streisand show, she was absolutely fabulous, but the evening was marred by a long walk in the pouring rain trying to find a taxi for the $100 ride back up the peninsula. So much for feeling good about taking the train instead of driving. Click below to read the letter I wrote to Caltrain.
Caltrain Board
1250 San Carlos Ave
P.O. Box 3006
San Carlos, CA 94070-1306
Dear Sir/Madam,
My wife and I took Caltrain from Hillsdale station to the show at the HP Pavilion in San Jose last night. We don’t ride Caltrain often, but the conductor was very helpful and the ride quite pleasant. We had some trouble in the Hillsdale station getting the parking machine to work (the one on the south side wouldn’t accept our dollar bills, and we couldn’t figure out how to put in a credit card), and we also couldn’t figure out how to buy a round trip ticket, but we still made it to the show in plenty of time.
After the show, we got back to the station and bought our tickets at 10:23, in plenty of time for the last train at 10:30. We looked at the paper schedule and noted that the train departed from track 3, so we headed there. There was a train on track 3, but it was dark and locked, so we waited for someone to arrive. We found a few other people waiting, and while we were there more arrived, until there were about 20 of us. We all wondered why the train was dark, and finally found someone to ask, who suggested we try track 5. We all trooped over there, but there was no train there either. We went back and forth several times, but could not find anyone in the station to ask, nor did we ever did find the 10:30 train. Most of us waited until 10:51, when train 547 came in, and when we asked them, they said the 10:30 had left – but we never saw it.
In the end, about 20 people waited outside in the rain for the better part of an hour to take taxi’s instead. We talked with a family from Burlingame, a man from San Francisco, and another group headed to Sunnyvale. We ended up with a $100 taxi ride back to San Mateo where we started, not to mention the useless $10.50 in Caltrain tickets.
I’m not asking for any recompense, but I am curious: what happened to the 10:30 train? And I thought you might like to know this story, since there are probably 20 people now who won’t take Caltrain again soon.
Sincerely,
Tom and Louisa Shields
Hillsborough, CA 94010
