Thursday, December 04, 2008

CalTrain Blows it, Offers Free Rides

I'm sitting comfortably at home watching this on Twitter.

Looks like the new signalling system put in during the CTX rebuild (4 years ago) had a meltdown this morning, disrupting service so badly that CalTrain is offering free rides today and tomorrow (Friday) as an apology.

From CalTrain.Com:

Customer ALERT: The computer problem which caused today’s train delays has been repaired. Train delays are expected to continue through the afternoon, as crews work to restore service. As a gesture of apology, all rides on Caltrain will be free until 1:30 a.m., Dec. 5. In addition, Caltrain tickets will be honored on VTA Routes 22 and 522 (which serve Caltrain stations) and on all SamTrans buses for the remainder of the day.

Update: I overstated this: "As a gesture of apology, all Caltrain rides were free from 1 p.m. to the end of the service day. We regret the delay and will continue to work to provide the service our customers expect."

Lame!

3 comments:

Yokota Fritz said...

I interpreted "1:30 AM Dec 5" to not really be tomorrow, but, you know, when the last southbound train pulls into San Jose Thursday night.

Nick said...

Yeah, a later announcement says "As a gesture of apology, all Caltrain rides were free from 1 p.m. to the end of the service day."

Pretty lame gesture.

Yokota Fritz said...

It kind of makes sense -- all of those people stuck on the train this morning get a free ride home. I wonder what percent of riders have monthly passes, but it helps the 10 ride ticket users.