iCaltrain: Caltrain Schedule for iPhone, gPhone, and Mobile Phones

Google I/O is a 13-min walk (1Km/0.6mi) from the SF Caltrain station. Walking directions from Google Maps below:

Caltrain updated its schedule today (March 2) and the iCaltrain mobile web schedule has been updated to show the latest schedule. The iPhone / iPod Touch update (v1.1) for App Store has been submitted to Apple as well, and should appear as a free update in the next few days.

Quick summary:
- Weekdays: three southbound evening trains (192, 194, and 196) depart 10min later.
- Weekends: all southbound EXCEPT 454 departs 15min later.

The new schedule is now posted at Caltrain.com.

Quick summary:
- Weekdays: three southbound evening trains (192, 194, and 196) depart 10min later than current schedule.
- Weekends: all southbound EXCEPT 454 departs 15min later than current schedule.

iCaltrain for iPhone/iPod Touch will get a free v1.1 update in the coming weeks with the new schedule. The web schedule for iPhone, Android (gPhone) and other mobile phones will be updated on March 2, 2009.

There will be an upcoming Caltrain schedule change.

Trains that are affected:
1. Weekday Southbound Trains: 192, 194, 196
2. All Weekend Southbound trains except 454, the last train.

Also, the 8-ride fare is replacing the 10-ride tickets.

Caltrain introduced a $0.25 base increase on Jan 1, 2009. However, no schedule change took place in January. According to my sources at Caltrain, they simply misprinted the paper schedules with the notice. That explains why their website does not mention any schedule changes. The actual schedule change will take place in March 2009, and will be announced in Feb.

iCaltrain App v1.0 and the web app remain up-to-date on its schedule info. App v1.0.1 is now available in the App Store and shows the updated fare. I had hoped to get it into the App Store before the New Year, but I had to take several weeks off in December due to health reasons.

The March 2009 schedule change will be included in the free, v1.1 update, which I expect to submit to the App Store in mid-Feb. Schedule updates beyond 2009 will be released in a future version of iCaltrain.

[Jan 15 Update]  I believe I’ve fixed the problem so there will no longer be delays before comments show up on the site.

Thanks to all the comments and feedback you’ve written on the site. I recently started using Akismet to combat spammers from flooding the blog, and it’s showing that about 98% of the comments are spam.

However, the change broke comment notification and moderation, and required that all messages be approved before they show up on the site. I apologize for the mis-configuration and I’m looking into how to turn that off so we can have more lively discussions on the blog.

iCaltrain app is now in the App Store. If you’re already an iCaltrain web app user, you’ll love the speed and smoothness of this app.

iCaltrain is fast and simple to use. It includes:
- scheduled arrivals for today, weekdays, and weekends (no Internet access required!)
- ticket price and zone information
- multi-touch Caltrain system map
- one-touch return trip schedule

The next two trains’ arrival times for today are instantly shown as you select the stations. The full schedule view automatically scrolls to the upcoming trains for today, too.

Location support is under beta testing right now and will be introduced as an free update.

iCaltrain v1.0 went through 2 weeks of beta testing, and was submitted to Apple’s App Store today. The native app starts up quickly and enables a user to find the next arriving trains in less than 10 seconds.

Thanks to the 20 or so beta testers for their feedback and suggestions. Your feedback has helped improved the app for all Caltrain riders.

I’m happy to announce that the Caltrain schedule app is nearing completion. I’m looking for a few beta testers who’d like early access and wouldn’t mind sharing their feedback.

Because Apple’s ad hoc distribution method requires that the app is signed for each iPhone, please locate your device ID in iTunes and email to me at <icaltrain at gmail>. I’ll make a build for you iPhone for you.

Thanks to all the great feedback so far. Please keep them coming.

I’ll be at iPhoneDevCamp in SF (August 1-3) getting feedback and hacking on the new releases.