Originally Posted by
garykung
The problem is Caltrain is still the fastest way to San Francisco. The BART connection is only good for East Bay.
I think you need to look again - BART from Milpitas will basically always be faster than Caltrain from Santa Clara.
Right now (Sunday), BART is 76 minutes from Warm Springs to Powell st, with a frequency of every 20 minutes. Add another ~5 minutes for Milpitas once it opens.
Caltrain is 100 minutes from Santa Clara to 4th/King, with a frequency of every 90 minutes.
On weekdays, BART is 55 minutes (+~5 for Milpitas) running every 15 minutes, Caltrain is 80-90 minutes and runs every hour, unless you happen to be travelling during peak periods when its every ~30 minutes.
BART is also ~$3 cheaper, and gives more and better destinations than Caltrain (on the presumption that most people coming from the airport probably don't want to go to the area of 4th/King). The other option of Caltrain -> BART (at Millbrae) takes longer and costs more.
Originally Posted by
garykung
With traffic, it takes at least 20 minutes to the Great Mall. So the connection is practically meaningless.
18-30 minutes based on the timetable, compared to 10 minutes to Santa Clara. So at peak hour Caltrain *might* be a better option end-to-end as long as you want to head to the area of 4th/King, and you time it right. BART will win out in basically every other situation.