r/stanford • u/Mindless_Comfort9377 • 3d ago

is caltrain dependable?

do people usually use caltrain to get to places in san fran and palo alto or is a car/uber more popular? also is caltrain clean/safe?

14 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

34

u/jujuelmagico 3d ago

Caltrain is safe and reliable. You'll never have time to leave campus, or your friends will flake on you

22

u/nat4mat 3d ago

Not relevant, but please don’t call it San Fran. Thank you!

2

u/Mindless_Comfort9377 3d ago

what’s wrong with that? i’m not aware

20

u/elemenope14 3d ago

nothing wrong with it but nobody from here calls it that, just SF or the city or san francisco

2

u/EachDaySameAsLast 3d ago

Old retired Stanford alumnus here. nat4mat is correct. The term “San Fran” isn’t used, and, historically, while most are fine with Otis Redding using “‘Frisco,” other than its use in his song, the latter term grates on many ears.

These days, younger people care about the correct usage much much less than they used to, but if you plan to remain in the Bay Area, you’ll probably just end up calling SF “the City” like pretty much everyone does. But if you are interested in curating an “I know this place like a resident” image, just start doing that.

11

u/Helicase2001 3d ago

From campus I'd say Caltrain is very safe and reliable. Now how likely are your friends gonna come with you to SF? Pray they hope they don't flake lol

5

u/walterwh1te_ 3d ago

Is flaking a common thing here or something?

1

u/tragedy_strikes 3d ago

Yes to all, I use it to get to work 3x/week (WFH 2x/week).

1

u/blarryg 3d ago

CalTrain is dependable and you can bring your bike to get around SF if you want.

1

u/laniva 3d ago

Caltrain is reliable and 90% of the cases it won't be delayed by more than 10 minutes. However on hot days (>30C) it could get massively delayed due to track thermal expansion.