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They were both right (the costs would clearly have caused taxes to be ever higher, as the other counties have demonstrated) and wrong (commuter rail (Caltrain) has not been able to keep up with demand).

And now CalTrain is getting electrified. Gee, I wonder who's paying for that?

http://www.caltrain.com/projectsplans/CaltrainModernization/Modernization/PeninsulaCorridorElectrificationProject.html

and lets take San Francisco Bay as our example (since I live here and have first hand knowledge and experience). VTA handles "some" of the South Bay, but limited to North San Jose and Mountain View.

VTA Buses go from Palo Alto to Fremont to South SJ to Gilroy. The light rail, from Mt. View down to Los Gatos and east San Jose to the Alameden valley area of SJ....in fact...just...here's the map: http://www.vta.org/getting-aro... (VTA focuses on SJ because it--SJ--has grown like a cancer or ambeoba, absorbing smaller communites, until it's most of the urban South Bay).

Caltrain handles a single strip running North to south from North San Jose to South (not the city) San Francisco.

Wrong. It goes from from SF (right next to AT&T Park) down to downtown SJ regularly, extending to Gilroy (30 miles south of the downtown SJ station) during "traditional" commute times (ie, not the 10a-8pm Valley standard time). Here's their map: http://www.caltrain.com/statio...

Bart handles SF -> Oakland, and a straight line down to Fremont.

Wrong. BART goes to SFO and Millbrae (and where it shares a station with CalTrain) up through SF and into the East Bay, extending from Richmond down to Fremont and out to Dublin/Pleasanton and Pittsburg/Baypoint. Here's BART's map: http://www.bart.gov/stations

These systems don't connect, use different payment systems, have different rates, and are _MORE_ expensive than driving.

The one bit that's true, but due to the compound sentence ends up being wrong. Connections are a pain in the ass, but the Clipper card is accepted by BART, CalTrain, VTA, SamTrans (San Mateo's bus service), Almeda Transit, MUNI (SF's transit system), plus more. Oh, and both VTA and SamTrans have stops at or near (ie, a block or two) almost all CalTrain stations on the Peninsula (the Atherton station is at least one exception) and VTA has service up to Fremont's southernmost BART station (and VTA is in the process of extending BART into east San Jose--it's not their fault that in the 1950s & 60s San Mateo and Santa Clara residents opted out of the BART system). And add into that that we're talking about five counties (SF, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, and Contra Costa) with all the territorialism and desire for control that brings with it (leading to different fare schedules, subsidies, etc.).

Taking our "cheap" (said with a hearty chuckle) mass transit is extremely expensive and time consuming.

Trip from Mt. View to Twitter's HQ (in SF): Leave around 8am. Car: 40-45 mines, $17.64 (31.5 mi at $.56 per mile); starting from Shoreline & 101 (hell, saving you driving from the CalTrain station to 101). (via Trulia's map...it looks like Google maps will no longer let you specify the time for traffic projections and 1am is actually one of the times the freeways are relatively empty). Pub: 1:03, $9.50: Mt. View CalTrain station to end of line in SF, then 38X followed by 2 minutes of walking (per 551.org). Oh, and you can read, sleep, etc. on the train. Plus, monthly passes and commute FSA will reduce that cost.

Yet instead of addressing the problems with mass transit, California is dumping many billions into a train from Fresno to Sacramento. Go figure..

True, but the train is also supose to go to SF, SJ, LA, and SD (PDF of rail proj

Book fair on the bullet train, which is 45-50 minutes is a dollar higher rate one way. The 3 zone trip you are referring to is the correct price (almost), but since you hit every stop it's a much longer commute (closer to drive time with traffic). Rates went up not too long ago, which you may not have known.

I took the fares right off the Caltrain website: http://www.caltrain.com/Fares/...

There is no surcharge for the Baby Bullet trains, and Caltrain couldn't charge such a surcharge today even if they wanted to -- they don't know which train you boarded or whether you transferred trains along the way. They only know the station where you boarded and the station where you departed.

The bigger problem with mass transit is the lack of convenience. If I am at the train station at 7:01 and miss the bullet train, I have to wait an hour for another train.

That's not quite true at Mountainview, if you miss the 6:57am train, you can take the 7:05 which gets you to SF 15 minutes later than the 6:57 would have. If you miss the 7:05, you can take the 7:23, which gets you to SF 22 minutes later than the 7:05. So yes, it takes you a bit longer if you miss your preferred train, but not an hour longer.

During prime time trains are every 30 minutes. Compare this to leaving in a car when I want and knowing about when I will get to the office.

You must drive on much different roads than I do -- to be sure that I'll make it to the office at a particular time, I have to pad my commute by at least 30 minutes to account for traffic. The train is much more consistent since it has no traffic delays, though when there is a delay (i.e. when someone is hit by a train), delays can be significant.

Also, the train is only part of the expense. Depending on which lot you park at in MV you have different rates, Muni and Bart are different rates so if you are not within walking distance of Caltrain you are paying another $4.00 minimum per day to commute.

Now compared to what you have to pay to park downtown SF it's cheaper, but that does not make it cheap by any means.

Isn't that what counts? That would make transit cheaper than driving.

Until working up there, I had no sympathy for the company private shuttles. I have since completely changed my mind on that one and take ours every day.

Sure, an employer sponsored shuttle that picks up close to home and drops you off right at the office sounds great, but would you be willing to pay the full fare for that if not sponsored by your employer?

Does San Francisco not run buses on the same lines? If not, the problem is with the city, not Google.

The problem is with the entire region. San Francisco buses can only run in San Francisco, with limited service to a couple recreational areas a few miles away. The rest of the region doesn't want to get caught up in San Francisco's myriad governance issues, so they operate their own transit systems. There are only a couple systems that cross the entire region: BART and Caltrain.

So, to get from my home to Google via existing transit lines, I'd have to take a bus to Caltrain, then take Caltrain to Mountain View, and then take a bus to Google. The pretty good regional trip planner says that it would take me 4 buses, 2 hours, and $13 to get from my home in San Francisco to Google, even with rush hour express service. It's cheaper if I get monthly passes and take my bike onto Caltrain, but it still takes a lot of time.

There's only Caltrain which is a sad joke.

Caltrain isn't perfect, but it's far from a joke. Ridership has been steadily increasing over the past decade. You can get from SJ to SF in an hour. That's barely longer than driving, and you can drink on the train instead of fighting for parking. Again, you can drink on the train instead of driving.

Caltrain's biggest problem is it's lack of dedicated funding. It has to beg for money from SF, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, and they're all hesitant to pony up despite the fact that Caltrain gets a greater percentage of its revenue from fares than any Bay Area transit service except BART. They could also use some more late night trains, especially on Thurs/Fri/Sat nights. But despite these warts, it's still a very useful and popular service.

You don't always want the same webpage when you visit a site on the iPhone as on a normal browser. For one, it's often nice to have pages wider than 320 px - if you limit yourself to that as a webdesigner then you're really going to be pressed.

Also, most mobile users don't really want all the same information as someone with a full browser. For example, http://caltrain.com/ has quite an informative site with image of the route maps and everything, but they also have a site http://icaltrain.com/ for mobile browsers that works just like an iPhone app and lets you find routes between stops.

How long before Google gets together with some of the other tech companies in the area to run a shared service?

There are various public transport systems available. These include Caltrain - a train service which runs all the way from San Francisco to San Jose in around 3 hours. Caltrain also provides various shuttle services, but the problem with this service was that so many people used to crowd into each shuttle that it became near impossible to get out when it was your stop. I was told that attempts to extend the service to cover more company offices were cancelled due to the overwhelming demand (ie. the employees from one company would completely fill the shuttle before anyone else from other companies could get on).

There was also the VTA tram system which ran from Mountain View to the Convention Centre and out to Diridon.

VTA also operates a good number of bus services, but you really need to know the exact timetable of each service to be able to make long distance journeys. However, they did have rendezvous points beside Caltrain stations, so you could get from the suburb of one city to another with some effort.

Consequently, company funded shuttle services remain the best choice.

I think you might be mistaking BART for Caltrain or Muni in the bay area. Bart runs on its own tracks, alternates as elevated or underground, 105 miles of track (no street crossings that I am aware of). The original spec average was 45 mph including stops, but I think actual is a little less than that.

Actually, we already have this system. In fact, the personal vehicles are cheaper, healthier, and don't have any parking problems. You can see the personal vehicles here. And here is more information about one of the many US rail systems that are compatible with those personal vehicles.