Caltrain
commuter rail line between San Francisco and Gilroy in California
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a commuter rail line in California, serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara County. The southern terminus is in San Jose at the Tamien station, with weekday rush-hour service extending to Gilroy. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th and King Street. Caltrain has express, limited, and local services. There are 28 regular stops, one limited-service weekday-only stop (College Park), one weekend-only stop (Broadway), and one stop that is only served on football game days (Stanford). While average weekday ridership in 2019 exceeded 63,000, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant: in March 2026, Caltrain had an average weekday ridership of 41,968 passengers.
Caltrain is governed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (PCJPB) which consists of transit agencies from the three counties served by Caltrain: Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo. Each member agency has three representatives on a nine-member Board of Directors. The member agencies are the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans).
After historically relying on diesel locomotives, Caltrain electrified 51 miles (82 km) of its route between San Francisco and Tamien, and has transitioned to electric service, with diesel trains remaining in service between San Jose and Gilroy.
The public source identifies “Caltrain” as commuter rail line between San Francisco and Gilroy in California. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Caltrain, commuter and rail.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Caltrain”, the useful work is to connect “commuter rail line between San Francisco and Gilroy in California” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q166817. Authority coordinates are 37.339, -121.910. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019 and 2026.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Caltrain”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Caltrain primary sources, Caltrain archive and Caltrain research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Caltrain”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Caltrain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.