Caltrain is spec’ing its new electric railcars. The agency will have to decide what is more important: bikes or bathrooms:
In the bad old days of Caltrain service, a passenger might have to wait as long as two hours just to board a train. With electrification, Caltrain will offer much faster service, operating at BART-level frequency (we hope). There is no reason to continue with the on-board bathrooms — let alone 5 per train. There are better uses for that space.
BART has bathrooms at most stations & generally shorter trips. Caltrain may increase frequency and shorten trip lengths a bit, but it’s still pretty long, especially with the all stop locals they have during off hours & on weekends. They need to have 1 restroom per train.
@Easy BART has restrooms now? Publicly accessible restrooms? Why can’t I ever find any?
And CalTrain has restrooms at only two stations, Dridion and one other I don’t know about. Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper and better to build and maintain about 20 more station bathroom suites than to buy and run 40+ extra train cars and maintain them so that there can be bathrooms aboard?
[…] engineering standards that create dangerous streets in the name of “safety.” Systemic Failure says Caltrain will have to choose between bikes and bathrooms in its new electrified trains, and it […]
Bathrooms are incredibly important. The trains should have at minimum 1. Maybe even 2, one at each end. More than that is unnecessary.
Agree with JJJJJ.
There should be at least one bathroom per EMU trainset. You don’t want anyone stuck on a long, slow late-night all-stops train ride to be forced to get off the train to avoid pissing or shitting themselves … but then be stuck trying to find a cab home because the next train isn’t until tomorrow.
Yes, of course, riders “should plan ahead” and all that … but shit happens, in my case, literally. I have IBD and sometimes, despite the best of plans and intentions, I find that I’ve absolutely gotta go. Knowing that there’s a bathroom on board offers a great deal of peace of mind — even if I only rarely ever need to use it.
Same goes for late-night trains and/or buses … knowing that they’re there “just in case” offers peace of mind to those who only rarely ever plan to ride them, and makes using the preceding trains a much more comfortable proposition. To put it another way, cutting that sparsely-used last run will actually cut ridership on the more well-patronized runs that precede it.
Next train isn’t until tomorrow? I think that after spending billions on electrification, Caltrain will run more than just a single train at night (if not, then we have much bigger problems to discuss than restrooms).
You’d better start discussing then, because there’s always going to be a last train of the (service) day. Just look at BART, billions spent on extensions … and still no around-the-clock service … not even a plan for it anytime in the future.
And even if there were to be around-the-clock service — which there won’t be — it doesn’t obviate the need or rationale for having at least one toilet per EMU trainset. Unlike BART, Caltrain stations are very simple and don’t and won’t have public toilets, so being forced to hop off a toiletless train in the middle of the night and wandering around an unfamiliar area urgently looking for one while on the verge of soiling oneself isn’t a palatable prospect. Once that crisis is resolved — probably by discreetly ducking into a secluded area — you’ve still gotta wait for what could be a long time to board the next train to finish your interrupted trip.
Public restrooms in above-ground BART stations can get gross. I only use them as a last resort. Most times they’re usually occupied. Maintaining cleanliness would be key if bathrooms were included on board.
@tony: Caltrain already has at least two bathrooms per train. Each cab-car has one, each handicapped gallery car has a wheelchair-accessible one, and, I believe all Bombardier trailer cars have one.
When will they re-open ALL the BART bathrooms? AND maintain them.