Updating guide
What makes an update useful or helpful? No matter what, updates need to be newsworthy and concise. If things are normal or how they should be there is no reason to announce it. Think of this service as a EAS for Caltrain. Too many updates could cause frustration or desensitize users who may stop following or updating which hurts everyone in the long run. Is it news that a train is running less than 5 minutes behind schedule? Is your time source accurate? Will the train make up that time by the the next stop? There is no correct answer, but mere food for thought.
Here are some formatting suggestions for updates. These have been developed and refined over the course of the service by the community at large and the community has come to expect people to use a common format. First time or casual riders may not be aware of the proper names for train sets and equipment nor may realize route numbers encode useful data in themselves. To accommodate all travelers it is asked of all users updating to follow the guide. For example even though route numbers encode the service class and direction (odd are southbound, even are northbound, 1xx are local, 2xx are limited, and 3xx are Baby Bullet express) the following notations are preferred.
1. Check before you update. At time of posting there are nearly 400 people with update keys. There is a high probability someone may have already sent a update and if you do not subscribe to SMS updates you may not be aware of multiple redundant updates.
2. Keep editorials off either account. Sure, you may be frustrated by a situation but the followers of @caltrain and @bikecar almost certainly are not interested in your editorial especially when they are anonymous. It is perfectly acceptable, however, to ask a relevant question.
3. Please update the appropriate account.
bikecar – For updates specific to the bicycle car
caltrain – Everything else.
4. Abbreviate when you can. Use common sense.
NB/SB = Northbound/Southbound
MV, PA, MP = Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, etc
Dep/Arr = Depart/Arrive
5. Include direction and number of train.
NB287
6. What is newsworthy about the train?
Regardless what the context is for your update the key is to include as much relevant information to help the majority of riders. Consider including the station and time the train departed if it was late, for example. A train leaving or arriving on time is not news. In fact it should do that all the time. *ahem*
7a. Delay, accident, fatality, or anything not bike car related?
NB287 dep. MV 15m late
NB287 mechanical problems after Millbrae. No ETR
NB287 fatality at MV. Trains single tracking
7b. Are you updating about the bike car status?
This is important to bikers for many reason which I won’t get into here. There are two style bike cars — newer style Bombardier which hold 16 bicycles with 2 banks of 4 at each end of the car and older style Nippon Sharyo (a.k.a. gallery) which hold 32 bicycles with 4 banks of 4 at each side of the car.
Noting the type and number of cars, and how full the cars are is important. No need to count how many open slots there are, but space being limited or people getting bumped are two good details to include. In fact the SF Bicycle Coalition asks that in addition to emailing them on bumps to also update @bikecar.
NB287 1 old, almost empty
NB287 2 new, near full
NB287 1 old, many bumped from MV
8. Official announcements
Sometimes there are official announcements at Caltrain’s webiste, platform display signs, 511.org, or elsewhere. If you happen to notice one relaying it may be helpful.
Comments and feedback are always welcome.