Here is a punch list that Caltrain could address to improve the passenger experience. Some of these items have been discussed before, but they are gathered here as an attractive display of low-hanging fruit.
1. Eliminate step deploy/retract delays
The timetable is the product. Why spend billions on saving time in motion only to waste a portion of that at rest? The EMU step mechanism wastes precious time during station dwells. A software update can tighten up the step sequence and save ten seconds per stop, or about three minutes per run, making the timetable 4% faster. If your product can be made 4% better at almost zero cost, why sleep on that, especially when facing a fiscal crisis?
Steps should be allowed to deploy and retract while the train is in (slow) motion, under 5 mph. This would have no impact on safety because the steps do not overhang the platform when deployed; they only go out to 63.5 inches from center line. There is no credible danger of clipping waiting passengers, even at slow speed.
2. Improve the auditory warning experience
Auditory signals are an integral part of assuring safety for riders of all abilities or states of impairment. Overdone, they become an assault on the eardrums, detracting from the passenger experience.
- Tone down the alarmingly loud door open/close beeps to the volume required by accessibility regulations. Ditch the shrill continuous beep and use a more musical chime like BART.
- Tone down the warning bell on the front of the train. It doesn't need to ding quite so loudly or insistently; unlike horns, there is no FRA-mandated minimum sound level required for bells. It's an electronic bell, so it can be reprogrammed.
3. Fix the passenger information system
First, mandate that it be correctly configured and used by all crews.
Next, get with Stadler's passenger information systems engineers to improve the information presented on the screens.
- Most importantly, improve the system's reliability. Too often, the screens show a Chrome browser error message indicating some sort of memory-related software crash. The frequency with which this happens is unacceptable.
- Display direction to the bathroom (this important passenger information is a sticker recently added next to the passenger information screen, missing the point by mere inches!) and, more importantly, indicate the bathroom's availability status, something you can't do with a sticker. This information could occupy a small portion of each screen so it is constantly in view as other information pages through.
- Display live crowding information. The EMUs have this information available in software, and it should appear on the screens so that passengers may redistribute themselves as needed throughout the train.
- Last but not least, display better connecting information. "Connect with: VTA" is useless information. "Connect with: VTA 89" is more useful. "Connect with: VTA 89, depart in :03, :23" is how it ought to be, in the year 2025.
4. Develop the new step design for level boarding
The timetable is the product. The next big timetable upgrade available to Caltrain is to reduce dwell time through level boarding. This will increase average speeds and make the product even more compelling as an alternative to traffic jams.
The most important but obscure little capital project at Caltrain right now is to develop the new step design that will enable raising platforms, a project said to cost just $3M per their level boarding roadmap. This is a first and necessary project that should be undertaken immediately.
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This list of easy little fixes is attainable and affordable, can improve Caltrain's product in the short term, and will directly contribute to the bottom line.
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