While Caltrain still struggles to recover its commuter base — previously, the bulk of its pre-pandemic ridership — the number of weekend trips has skyrocketed, making up the majority of gains since 2019.
Last month saw the highest number of total rides since 2019, slightly over 1 million, a 78% increase from July 2024. And even though average weekday ridership still hasn’t fully recovered from the pre-pandemic levels, it still saw 70% increase year-over-year. Weekend ridership has seen the most impressive improvement, increasing 60% between 2019 and this past July.
“After the initial days of the pandemic, we transitioned to change our schedules to move away from the nine-to-five schedule and more for people traveling on weekends,” Caltrain spokesperson Dan Lieberman said. “The people we were serving at the time were more essential workers who were on a different schedule, so we adjusted to that.”
The ridership growth can be attributed not only to gradually increasing back-to-work mandates but also the agency’s $2 billion electrification undertaking, which came with much more frequent service starting in the latter half of 2024.
“Things have really changed since we moved to half hourly weekend services. It’s dramatically more convenient and has made it easier to get it around,” Lieberman said. “The half hourly service made a very substantial difference.”
Between July 2024 and last month, all the San Mateo County stations saw more than a 50% increase in total ridership, with South San Francisco, San Bruno and Hayward Park showing the biggest increases, some of them more than doubling year-over-year.
Despite the positive outlook on ridership figures — and a recent increase in ticket prices — it’s unclear if that will make a meaningful dent in the agency’s dire finances. The agency is facing a $75 million annual average deficit starting next fiscal year — which starts mid-2026. Many board members are hoping a proposed regional measure will help dig them out of the fiscal hole if voters pass it in 2026. Executive Director Michelle Bouchard has categorized the fiscal problem as “existential” for the agency.
Prior to the pandemic, Caltrain’s farebox revenue accounted for nearly three-quarters of its operating costs — an impressive figure compared to other comparable rail operators throughout the country — and while it’s still nowhere close to that ratio, Bouchard said there are signs of optimism.
“Caltrain is back at 30% farebox recovery and from anything we can glean, that is nation leading,” she said.
Correction: The previous story stated the weekend ridership increased by 160% between 2019 and 2025. Weekend ridership is 160% of prepandemic ridership, or a 60% increase.
(2) comments
All problems with Caltrain and SamTrans with ridership falls directly on the feet of Diana Papan, David Canepa, Rice E. Median, Gina Papan, and the rest of the crew for widening 101.
They spent $600M, promised less congestion and therefore invited commuters to abandon Caltrain and use their cars instead.
Convenience wins out and if people get free and easy rides through carpool cheating, why would they use Caltrain? Caltrain needed that congestion to keep ridership up and now Lexus Lane funding is redirected to CHP to reign in car pool cheaters. That's money that could have been used to fix potholes and bridges, which are in bad shape.
Folks, it sounds like Caltrain is doing fine. Don’t fall for any scare mongering about deficits because there will always be deficits as long as Caltrain doesn’t practice fiscal management. As such, vote NO on any measures supporting transportation. Your money will only go towards paying ever-increasing salaries, pensions, and benefits. Not only that, Caltrain recently increased ticket prices which will mostly, if not all, go towards these same ever-increasing salaries, pensions, and benefits.
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