[waylandsmithers]

I'm not from the bay area-- do the train operators seem to have any public support? I feel like it's hard to sympathize with striking workers who are already among the highest paid in the country for this line of work.

[xargs]

The most recent polls show 68-77% of the public are against yet another union strike. In terms of general public opinion, there are, of course, contingents of uber-liberal/uber-conservitive outliers on either end; but the majority of the public are simply fed up with what is perceived as an increasingly petty and entrenched stalemate with little transparency as to what is actually being negotiated.

BART employees and their unions say salaries are too low for the (high) cost of living in the area, and should be increased by 23% to correct that. However, BART (and increasingly, the public) argue that BART jobs require no technical skills or education (beyond a HS diploma) and are benefitted and secure jobs already paying far above the average wage for jobs of similar (low) skill levels; and in light of the context (economic and otherwise), only a 4% raise should be granted. The percentage raise rates have gone back and forth on both ends, but that's the general gist.

source (on the 68-77% strike disapproval): http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2013/10/10/bart...

[tsuru]

I'm not from the bay area either, but have you see the rent prices out there? Just seeing how much rent prices over the last 20 or so years have increased, mostly because of the tech industry, it's easier for me to sympathize with them.

[thaumasiotes]

Speaking as someone who tried to use the godawful abomination that is Caltrain, I have no sympathy for any Caltrain employees, and never will.

You could replace the entire staff with San Francisco homeless and it couldn't get any worse.

[dllthomas]

This isn't Caltrain.

[jrockway]

What's the problem with Caltrain, exactly?

[thaumasiotes]

Caltrain seems to operate on the principle "users are the enemy".

I wanted to travel between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, where my family is. Driving, that takes about 2.5 hours depending on traffic. In theory, the mass transit way of doing things is to take Caltrain from SF to San Jose and then a bus over highway 17.

Here are some of the problems I encountered.

- Caltrain leaves once an hour. This is forgivable, but incredibly inconvenient, and the express train (same distance, half the time) leaves much less often. It would matter less than it does, except...

- I once arrived at the station on time, saw people being let through the gate, bought a ticket, and was turned away from the gate by the guard. The people I had just seen were clearly visible on the platform, walking to the train. But hey, why not make me sit in the station for another hour.

- Multiple times I experienced indefinite delays as the train just sat on the track in the middle of nowhere, unmoving. No explanation was given.

- Caltrain arrives at (and leaves from) Diridon roughly once per hour. The highway 17 bus leaves from (and arrives at) Diridon roughly once per hour. They've been anti-synced: the bus leaves about ten minutes before the train arrives, and the train leaves about ten minutes before the bus arrives. The only explanation I can even imagine for this is that whoever set the schedule specifically hated the passengers.

The upshot is that you spend the better part of your day on what would have been a 2-2.5 hour drive. It's not even feasible to make the trip both ways in a single day.

[elangoc]

The frequency of the trains will be increased once the trains are moved from diesel to electricity (will take 2 more yrs?), since the operating costs will decrease.

Whether the Caltrain schedule matches the highway 17 bus's schedule is not solely the fault of Caltrain -- it's either a 2 way street, or else they're both neglecting it, unless you have proof otherwise.

I have ridden MTA (NYC) and BART when they have stopped the trains in unpredictable locations for various reasons. For short stoppages, they don't say anything, but for stoppages more than 30 secs, they typically say something.

[thaumasiotes]

> Whether the Caltrain schedule matches the highway 17 bus's schedule is not solely the fault of Caltrain -- it's either a 2 way street, or else they're both neglecting it, unless you have proof otherwise.

You're talking about a bus route with two stops. The only thing it does is travel between Diridon station and downtown Santa Cruz. I'm assigning responsibility for the station's scheduling to the station, which is Caltrain.

[billmalarky]

The cost of living in SF is outrageous.