San Antonio Caltrain Station

My friends always laugh that I literally review everything that I’ve been to on Unilocal… but gotta stay true to my Unilocal game. This station is pretty nice, but then again, most Caltrain stations are pretty nice. When I say nice, I just mean clean. There’s nothing to do and the place is pretty boring since it’s smacked in a very residential part of Mountain View as opposed to being in the heart of downtown like it is in Mountain View /​Palo Alto /​Redwood City /​Burlingame, etc. But it’s clean, it’s safe, and on hot summer days, there are little crevices of shade, but it’s largely pretty sunny and exposed. Not super exciting.

Hmm. I am surprised no one has reviewed this Caltrain station since 2013?!
I am a frequent traveler visiting my girlfriend living 10 minutes walk away from this station. I have been renting cars for pretty much the whole 2014. When i visited the Sno-​Zen shaved ice place, I suddenly realized how close that is to walk to this station. And with the new and free Mountain View shuttle, who needs a car nowadays?
The only reason I give this a 4 is that I was forced to buy a single trip ticket thanks to no clipper reloading machine here. Next time I will make sure I reload online or at SFO.

a little isolated but not too many people like mtn view

Just missed the train? Prepare to wait an hour.
It’s difficult to get dropped off on the Central side when I’m on my way north. And getting dropped on Showers means having to walk the length of the station to the tunnel on the southern end of the platform, going down a couple flights of stairs and heading under the track and racing back the full length of the station to buy a ticket and wait.
With my luck, the train always comes just after I get out of the car, and I end up waiting the full hour for the next one.
It would help if the train actually went fast, but the last jaunt up to the city took more than two hours.
This station is pretty plain, no old buildings or anything around to kill time with when you’re stuck waiting. There’s also not much shade or benches, and that lone closed-​in area on the northbound with the one bench is like sitting in a sweatbox with all the trapped heat.

Clean, free parking across the street, and a little deli selling bagels and coffee nearby. Decent enough for a train station! Drawback — could be better lit at night through the connecting tunnel walkway.

why has no one mentioned that this station is ridiculously hard to drive to if you’re coming from Central? I felt like I was navigating a freaking maze. Thank god for all the signs, but man… we ended up missing the train because the station was not actually as close as it appeared. What a tease… you see the station outside your window… and then you have to drive 8 minutes more to get to it… and then you see your train leaving…

While this Caltrain station is nice and clean (plus there’s free street parking nearby), it’s really a very annoying station to utilize.
First, the underground paid all-​day parking is located underneath an apartment building near the northwest corner of the station, but to get to the northbound-​train platform, one has to walk the entire length of the station to its very southern end to go under the tracks and reemerge on the correct side of the tracks to board a northbound train.
Second, not very many rush-​hour weekday trains actually stop at the station itself. And zero Limited-​stop or Express trains do. Even the California Avenue Caltrain station up the road has more trains (including some Limited-​stop trains) stopping at the station during the rush hour commute.
So this Caltrain station is probably best utilized during the weekends, when almost all Caltrain trains stop at every station, including this one.
For weekday travel, both the California Avenue station to the north, or the downtown Mountain View station to the south are usually better options.

This is a solid train station to live near. You will be able to either get a direct train or a 1-​connection train to wherever you need to go on the Caltrain line.
Beware that if you need to go northbound, you need to go the southernmost part of the station, cross under the tracks, and come back up. This is something you NEED to be aware of if you’re running late, as it will take a few extra minutes.
Easily bought my caltrain tickets here and have never had trouble punching my 8-​rides either.

I figured this place needs a review for those people walking around and decide a train station is nearby. This place is not bad. However the trains that come here all pretty much take the same amount of time. Express trains don’t make a difference really (like 5 mins tops) and bullets don’t stop here :(nice neighborhood though.

So on 8−21−09 I was waiting to catch the 8:34pm southbound train from san antonio to down town mountain view. Around 9:30pm A lady came over the loud speaker to tell everyone that the train was delayed 2hours. After that I had to walk home it was BS that cal train took my money and didn’t provide me with service so in the end I payed to walk home this is also BS. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Caltrain do something like this to somone. I once was in redwood city and they said the train would be delayed for about 40 min so some people ran into safeway to go get something and use the bathroom. About 3 min later they boarded the train and left aout 20people in redwood city. I dont think I’m going to pay to ride caltrain anymore I mean I go one stop hmmmmm A holes.