On Thursday, my grandma and I were riding back from Sacramento on the last San Jose departure of the night, at 5:40. When we were in Richmond, I saw on the electronic signs that train 544 was delayed due to trespasser incident, and I knew what that meant. I didn't tell my grandma, or the woman seated with us, because it was her first time and I didn't want to worry either of them. When we departed Emeryville, the conductors came onboard and announced that all Hayward and Fremont passengers were to get off at Oakland Jack London and be taxied to the destination stations at Amtrak's expense. We left Jack London on time, arrived at the Coliseum 4 minutes early, and then after dropping off pax, we backed up for about a mile, then pulled forward again on a different track and sat on the one third-closest to the platform for about 20 minutes. We had to wait for a northbound CC to come up the CS route, then pulled south and even though we didn't depart the Coliseum area until 8:10 or so, we arrived in San Jose at 8:59, only 1 minute after scheduled departure. A few non-related things I noticed on the trip were just how funny it seemed to me to see 4-car trains again. I grew up seeing 4-car Coasters and 4 and 5 car Surfliners, but in recent years all Coaster trains have moved up to 5 or 6 cars and the Surfliners are predominantly 6 cars now. More than half the CC consists seemed to be 4. In addition, it was strange to see the old, in-need-of-repair café on the lower level of the Superliner on the way home. On the way up to SAC, it was on top, as I had expected, and I liked the layout, although that car eats up much more space than the Surfliner one. It was odd to me that I could not get my own food, but, it is what it is. In addition, two doors on the train did not open by pushing either button. After I alerted a conductor, he used brute force to open it, and then locked it open so that pax could move unimpeded into the café. The SAC station walk truly was not that inconvenient and yes while it adds three minutes to getting to the train, they made the trains available for boarding at up to 20 mins before departure so it was of no concern. The new 6 tracks through the station inc. 2 bypass tracks are vastly improved from what seemed like 3 from the old arrangement.
