I took CalTrain into work today (actually light rail+cal train). It takes about two hours (driving takes about 1).
Probably won’t do this every day, but maybe I could do 1 day a week? That sounds do-able. This particular method was: Light rail (Berryessa, Tasman, Mountain View); Caltrain (Mountain View, San Carlos); Shuttle (San Carlos, Island Dr). Leaving from the first light rail station at 6:09 makes this a 1h 33m trip, while leaving later than that would take more (1h 49 min, up to 1h 57m). (Add about 10 min to those for walking from the shuttle to work The cost is 5.75 each way. Other options were pretty much all over 2:20 and mabye 2:50, for similar or more cost. I looked into but ultimately rejected: Lt. Rail to Caltrain by way of downtown SJ, lt rail by way of Tamien (South San Jose), driving to Caltrain and parking, taking a regular bus to CalTrain, and even an express bus going to Palo Alto from my house, then walking (from El Camino at Page Mill) to California St. station.
One annoying thiing was missing the office-to-train shuttle, which usually means waiting 1 hr for the next one. Other than that everything seemed to go OK. The commute is longer, but I have some free time to think about my week and plan for things to come. (Or listen to music which is what I did, mostly)
ok v. tired now. must sleep
I thought that the train system in California was very silly, least in your neck of the woods.
I can drive about 35 to 40 minutes drop my car off and take the train into Boston, which will leave me at North Station, where I can catch a T to almost any place in Boston that’s walking distance.
Silly I say.
Good for you for trying mass transit! Personally I find Caltrain very relaxing but I find the SJ light rail frustratingly slow because it seems to stop at every stop known to humans.
Another thing you might consider is finding a carpool buddy. That’s what my husband does. He finds it nice not to drive everyday and use the carpool lane and while he doesn’t get to read he does have someone to talk to.
I have a friend who commutes from Sonoma County to South of Market, SF via car, ferry and Bart. He is able to deduct the “ferry time” as “work time” since he has table space and a laptop. I wonder if your work would include that extra hour as “work time” if you were similiarily equipped?
Hello, I have noticed and enjoyed your comments on ciannait’s journal so jumped over to your journal the other day. Just thought I would say hello!
Cool! and thanks for the note. A friend of C’s is a friend of mine.
ttys!