How Many Cars?

I've been looking at Caltrains pictures, past, and present and have noticed that every train is 4 or 5 cars long. I haven't seen anything bigger. So my question is during the peek of rush hour, what is the biggest train Caltrain uses?

As a Metra engineer, I'm used to seeing 9 to 11 cars. Even during off peak times we run with 6 and 7 cars on the Milwaukee District.

I'd say 90+% of Caltrain's Mon-Fri consists are 5 cars, peak and off-peak. Never more than 6.

One difference from eastern roads: all cars are open.

I can't say that I've ever seen more than 5 cars on a CalTrain consist. The other thing that is different between CalTrain and commuter agencies back east is that on CalTrain you have a decent number commuting in each direction during rush hour not the majority of passengers heading in one direction.

The regular consists for Caltrain are 5 cars for both galleys and Baby Bullet "Bombs." Every trainset runs with 5 cars, and now that POP is in place, every car stays open every trip.
The only exceptions will be special event trains, like Bay to Breakers or Martin Luther King Day Freedom Train, that run 9 to 10 cars, and one baseball train that will have 6 cars.

Having all the bay area rail properties on one forum will be convenient, because they all connect together or share terminal trackage at one point or another.

Francis Wong

tp49 wrote:I can't say that I've ever seen more than 5 cars on a CalTrain consist. The other thing that is different between CalTrain and commuter agencies back east is that on CalTrain you have a decent number commuting in each direction during rush hour not the majority of passengers heading in one direction.

Hey tp 49,

The reason why Caltrain's ridership in both directions are nearly the same
number during rush hour is because Caltrain serve two big cities(San Francisco and San Jose) with many smaller cities in between them.