Caltrain Closure Creates Major Transportation Setback for Outside Lands

Caltrain is suspending its service between San Francisco and Millbrae stations during the weekend of the Outside Lands music festival at Golden Gate Park, the transit agency said.

The service will be suspended the weekends of Aug. 12 to 13 and Aug. 19 to 20 because of a construction project, the agency said in a Tuesday news release. Riders may experience some delays but the agency will offer a bus bridge service.

The trains will stop at Millbrae and won’t continue north toward San Francisco, Dan Lieberman, a spokesperson for Caltrain, told SFGATE. If riders get off at the Millbrae stop, there will be a bus waiting for them. The service will travel all the way to the San Francisco station and make the same stops as Caltrain when it’s in full service, according to Lieberman.

He said riders going to 4th and King could also transfer to BART at the Millbrae station.

Lieberman said the agency was aware of the Outside Lands music festival, which draws up to 90,000 attendees, but that the “larger windows” offered by weekend closures were necessary to complete the construction. This weekend closure is one of 30 required this year for Caltrain’s electrification project, which includes converting the diesel trains to electric. This is the 17th weekend closure resulting from the project, according to Lieberman.

“Between concerts, Giants games and everything else going on along the entire corridor, there’s no way to not interrupt anything,” he said. “We’re trying to keep this as painless as possible.”

Lieberman said the bus bridge has been “fairly crowded,” especially during Giants games.

The Caltrain electrification project is intended to “reduce the environmental impacts of the train system by reducing noise, improving the air quality and lowering greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the project’s webpage. The agency is also adding additional trains to its service line during peak hours with the project. After its completion, the agency will have six trains per direction during its busy periods.