Caltrain "Baby Bullet" train at Diridon Transit Center in San Jose.

Today I decided to take one of my occasional visits to San Jose via train and local transit. Recent journeys have found me taking Caltrain to Mountain View and transferring there to VTA Light Rail. That is convenient for sure but today I wanted to ride one of the new "Baby Bullet" trains. I did that by taking the new 8:11 AM departure from San Francisco all the way to the Diridon Transit Center in San Jose at the old Southern Pacific Depot. It was a smoother ride than the older trains but something is still not right as frequently the train vibrated as if there were very small bumps or pits on the new welded rails. One problem I think is that the double decked equipment that American railroads are so enamored with does not give a very smooth ride. Even the French have not ordered anymore double deck TGV trains that I am aware of. I have ridden their single deck trains and the double deck ones and despite the silky smoothe ride of the French system, there is a definite difference in stability with the double deck trains. Anyway, I enjoyed the ride and was able to take some photos at the San Jose end of the line.

This was my first visit to that depot and I found the layout of the transit center to be very efficiient. I had no trouble finiding my bus to downtown San Jose (the free DASH shuttle) but could have walked it as downtown is much closer to the train depot than I thought. During my short stay there I did some photographyof buildings and the VTA light rail trains plus a couple of photos on the San Jose State campus. After returning to Diridon Transit Center I took some more photos while waiting for my return train.

Each time I go to San Jose it is interesting to see this city which is bigger than San Francisco but whose downtown is so quiet and laid back that it seems much smaller. There is almost not a there, there. There are some signs of improvements with some new cinemas. San Jose Rep is there in a new building and now the San Jose Opera and Symphony has a new home in the refurbished California Theatre thanks in large part to David Packard. The big problem with downtown San Jose is that there are virtually no stores, not even botique stores that one finds around the world. I didn't even see one of the ubiquitous Walgreen stores. They really need a large department store to anchor things and draw in other stores which would in turn bring in shoppers. Until people have a reason to go downtown and stay there for awhile, it will continue to be quiet and sleepy. On the plus side, I have always found the people in San Jose friendlier than in San Francisco. Also on the plus side, the streets are clean and I don't get panhandled as I do in San Francisco.

Now if Caltrain could just rid of the shimmy or vibrations in its trains. You would think that on welded rail everything would be better. It is on Amtrak from Oakland to Sacramento. Why not on Caltrain from San Francisco to San Jose?