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Comment by kaolinite | Hacker News Reader

    Palo Alto and Mountain View are farther away than you think

Hm, when I visited it felt like a pretty quick journey - no more than 30 minutes via Caltrain. Perhaps it was just excitement though!

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I commuted to Mountain View from San Francisco on Caltrain. It is doable, but it gets old pretty quick.

Also those sports fans that the OP say don't exist much? They all take Caltrain to go to the ballpark at peak commute hours during the season. Also, they allow alcohol on Caltrain. Imagine a packed train full of orange and black with lots of alcohol.

With the coming electrification of Caltrain in preparation for high speed rail though, hopefully they'll be faster and more frequent service.

"Imagine a packed train full of orange and black with lots of alcohol."

Try the last train out of Glasgow after an Old Firm Derby... :-|

You're all Subway Loyal!

(we're just jealous, Edinburgh doesn't even get a subway)

Alcohol isn't allowed on Caltrain on days when there is a sporting event.

Not true. Alcohol is allowed on CalTrain, and is only prohibited after (i.e. on the return trip from) a sporting event.

Thanks for the clarification. It looks like they forbid it after 9pm on certain days.

That's why someone created http://isthereagiantsgametoday.com

Depends a lot on when you go and where you're coming from.

From my house in the Mission, right now Palo Alto is 30-minute drive that traffic has bumped up to 61 minutes. The next train takes 25 minutes on BART to get to Millbrae plus another 34 minutes on Caltrain with a 19-minute wait in between. That's on a limited; a local train would take even longer. Mountain View is another 10-15 minutes away.

Having lived here for quite a while, I think the author has it right: those places feel pretty far.

Any thoughts on commuting the other direction? I.e., living towards Palo Alto and commuting by train to SOMA?

Caltrain isn't bad headed south in the morning, although getting to Caltrain can be a real PITA, however. Coming north in rush hour, things get uglier.

I commuted from the Mission to Cupertino (MV station) for three years on Caltrain. Wouldn't recommend it.

It's around 38minutes if you catch the 'bullet' train. I think the regular train is a little over an hour, although this doesn't include the time to actually get to the train station.

Yeah - it always takes longer to get to and from the station too. Sometimes it's hard to justify whether it is worth it! Personally I use ZipCar when I need to head down there now (which to be honest is rarely).

Yeah, I'm in palo alto now - but kind of want to move to SF. The crazy rent/finding a place and commute issue serve as a pretty strong resisting force though.

The express train or a car takes about 45 minutes otherwise its 1hr:15m. 30 minutes is just not possible!

Fair enough, must have just been enjoying the journey then.

30 minutes from sf to pa? Sorry, no. And mountain view is even farther.

More like 38m to 1hr, but feels like 30.

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