DESCRIPTION:
On a rare day off from school, I went to 2nd & Santa Clara Light Rail Station with the Valley Transportation Authority and I spotted a unique service when I got to the station:

"Santa Teresa - Express Train"

I told myself, "great! Let's board that train and see what it does." So I boarded this commuter express service, with the portion of the video taken from Convention Center to Santa Teresa. The differences between this train and the local service to Santa Teresa include:

- Only six trips are operated in the peak direction per day (three AM northbound, three PM southbound)
- While local trains operate to/from Alum Rock, the Commuter Express service operates to/from Baypointe LR Station
- The Commuter Express Service skips a total of six stops, namely (from north to south) Children's Discovery Museum, Virginia, Tamien (for Caltrain), Capitol, Curtner, and Branham

Before arriving at Convention Center, the voice announcement warns commuters that the train will operate nonstop after Convention Center LR station and its next stop will be Ohlone/Chynoweth LR station (for Almaden LR station via Oakridge). And you'll hear from time to time that same announcement until it leaves Branham LR when the train returns to local service.

The nonstop section of this service is substantial, at around 6 miles, saving commuters around 10 minutes per way. And with the train running at 45mph, it sure is a fast train, slightly faster than Muni Metro.

Once I got off at Santa Teresa LR, I took a few impressions of the express train I just experienced, with a local train to Alum Rock waiting on the opposite platform. The express train then returned to the Guadalupe LR yard (close to SJC Airport) as a "not in service" train (deadhead).

For more images, particularly at Santa Teresa LR and subsequent legs, head over to my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fieldsofdreams