From the Merc:

Amtrak train hits pedestrian in San Jose By Leslie Griffy
Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/28/2008 03:33:27 PM PST

An Amtrak train struck a pedestrian near the intersection of Coleman and Hedding streets in San Jose this afternoon, a spokeswoman said.

It is unclear how badly the pedestrian is injured, said Amtrak spokeswoman Verne Graham. She confirmed that a report came in that the 538 Capitol Corridor train heading to Sacramento from San Jose hit someone at around 3:05 p.m.

The crash closes one of Caltrain's main lines and will likely cause delays for commuters, Caltrain spokesman Jonah Weinberg said.

The commuter line from San Jose to San Francisco was already experiencing delays today because a Union Pacific freighter derailed Wednesday night in San Francisco, he said.

I missed this double-whammy, since my family was visiting my office to sell Girl Scout cookies, and we drove home.

Had I been planning to get home the usual way, at least thanks to the Twitter-based rider alert system I knew about the problem. It might've been a good night to take the VTA's 522 express bus. Anyway, this twitter thing really works--if you ride CalTrain, you really ought to get it (there's another one for BART).