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It is not special service, but the regular service on Capitol Corridor has trains leaving for Diridon on Sunday from Levi's at 4:56, 6:27, and 8:26pm, which gives you arrivals at Diridon at 5:18, 6:48 and 8:48 respectively, if they are on time that would be 12-17 minutes to transfer to northbound trains leaving at 5:35 (bullet), 7pm and 9pm, arriving at MV at 5:50pm, 7:19, and 9:19pm, is that faster than taking light rail, 54m, 52m, and 53m? The 4:56pm Capitol Corridor arrives at Santa Clara at 5:04pm, the 5pm Caltrain is schedule in Santa Clara at 5:05pm, if Caltrain delayed delayed that train a few mins on game days that would be a good transfer, you would need to go down to the pedestrian tunnel to transfer, unless CC gets to put its southbound train on platform 2 or 3 to allow for transfer on the island platform. If you do make the transfer, that will get you to MV at 5:19 (25 min!), but SF at 6:36pm, 3 min before the baby bullet you chose to not transfer to at Diridon gets there. Based on my experience on Saturday it would seem fairly uncrowded to go that way, but people may wise up. The 8:26 train is probably no good as the kickoffs are at clustered around 1:15, 1pm, 1:05, 1:30, or clustered around 5:30pm.The return sucked bad but not as bad as the arrival for me. Other people I've talked to experienced the exact opposite. If there was a way for Cal Train to run a special train to Great America/Levi's from Diridon via the ACE/Capitol Corridor tracks, that would be HUGE! Or at least, if ACE/Capitol Corridor could run special event trains to sync with CalTrain at Diridon for transfers ,that would be a monumental improvement.
Is a game ending by 4:30-4:45 realistic for a 1pm kickoff, what about a 1:30 kickoff.
I'm guessing they have the fixed schedule because UP owns the tracks, it is single tracked to Fremont and there are no sidings, pocket tracks or sections of double track to store the train.
I should say regardless ACE is running special fixed scheduled trains from Stockton, to Levi's and back. There is a lot of space near Santa Clara station currently to store trains, and it could serve as a way to transfer from Capitol Corridor to Caltrain, if Caltrain moved their trains to leave 12 min or so earlier on game days to match the Capitol Corridor arrivals at Santa Clara.
Levi's would do well to get people to take Capitol Corridor whenever viable. If train service could extend to Tamien on game days that would allow people to transfer from Caltrain to CC at Santa Clara and transfer, Tamien has a large free park and ride lot. Getting back may be harder. Taking CC from Diridon to the game for a 1pm or 1:30 kick off would be hard because of the arrival times at 10:24am and 1:04pm. For a 5:30 kickoff, it is 3:54 and 5:24.
Capitol Corridor ends up being a better service for Fremont, Hayward or Oakland fans going to the games.