[adamtait]

CalTrain is a pain, and as a government service, seems to constantly fighting to be recognized. It seems that few who live in the valley care about their only public transit artery. And, those that do are not commuters themselves or have little involvement in the tech scene. The CalTrain service must highly inefficient at the moment. I've lived in many major cities around the world, and never have I seen a regular commuter train being run by full locomotives. Since the cargo isn't heavy, I can only imagine what the fuel costs to run a CalTrain service are. That might partially explain why CalTrains run no more than once an hour.

The Google shuttle works well because there is one focal point - everyone is going or coming from the Googleplex. Optimizing routes would be harder for anyone trying to open a similar service to the public, since employers in the valley are spread out.

There is also a sorely missing off-hours service. Even at Google, I know several times that friends would have stayed for an extra drink/game if there was a shuttle that left later than 10pm. And, how many have you been caught in SF after just missing the 10:20pm and having to wait for the 12am? Or, had to cut a night short because you had no way of getting home after 12am? Brutal.