Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit - Petaluma, California

Useless Bob

The SMART rail system seemed totality functional & should have a long future of transporting people.
How SMART breaks even on freight is a mystery when all they do is move a dozen or so boxcars around ?

Fred Kilgallin

Traveling by the SMART to San Francisco was as good as it gets. However, getting the senior and youth passes for the train was decidedly a stake through the heart. The office is hard to find, and the hoops are more than a little ridiculous. An ID requirement for an 11-yr old? The requirements (show up in person at some obscure and hard to find office and have ID for the kids) are just clearly meant to be an impediment to actually acquiring the pass. If you're poor or have mobility issues, it just sucks to be you, I guess. Not a great look for public transit.
That said, I totally recommend it as a way to go to San Francisco. The train/ferry is comfortable, warm, easy to use, and it drops you right on Pier 5, at the Ferry Building. If you have a flight out of SFO not at the crack of dawn, I'd totally recommend using the train/ferry as a way of getting there, provided your time is not extremely limited. A surprising number of people used the train on the Friday we went int

garrett f

Great people always engaging, friendly and helpful. I love taking the train! Other people do to and it shows in their kindness. I left my portfolio at a station, a rider found it and turn it in to a Conductor. I called Customer service and they checked, they found it and sent it back down on the next train. Whew! Thank profusely and I appreciate all of you.

Laura McCluskey

I get off at 3 pm and there is no train scheduled until over an hour later! Traffic going north now starts earlier than 3 pm! I liked the idea initially because I do not like sitting in traffic going home, but to have to wait for over an hour for the train? I, like other people can't just switch our working hours to accommodate the hours of the train schedule. I do not see how this is going to improve traffic since most people will probably not wait over an hour for the train to arrive.

I did switch my hours to ride the train on 08-28-17, but I cannot do that everyday just to save time on the freeway. It was a nice ride and I enjoyed not sitting in traffic, but once the fares increase, I will not be riding for $11.00 everyday-I spend less in gas each week so it will be a loss in money for me. I was looking forward to riding but the hours of the trains and the expense of the tickets are just too much, as I expect it to be with a lot of people.

A B

The STUPID train is the worst neighbor, when this half baked rail came to town it just blew up traffic issues at every crossing. It's been years now and lights still don't work and timing is still off, so everyone is stuck waiting to figure out what is going on. Only opening weekend, when rides were free, have I ever seen a full train, usually it's 8-10 people max on a train and I know this because I can count them easily as the train goes by. I don't know what was said to sell this project to the public back in 00's but this thing is a huge burden on the City of San Rafael and is such a waste of public money. When hundreds for cars are waiting for multiple minutes at crossings for a train to come through town with 10 people on it something is not right. The carbon footprint alone must be staggering of all those cars forced to idle. I used to walk through the rail corridor but the crossings are so messed up and the resulting traffic is so scary, I drive blocks out of the way to avoid the stupidity. The best part is SMART doesn't seem to care, they don't even keep actual ridership numbers to be able to have actual conversations about this fiasco, they just keep bumbling along spending massive amounts of public money and letting residents deal with the issues they create. The next crossings are about to open, its should be a whole other level of chaos. But don't worry neighbor, SMART thought it all out and it will work seamlessly...

Shadow Universe

Awesomely convenient, sparkling clean and very modern train cars. The schedule has lots of options throughout the day. Wish it had a direct connection to the BART which would make it even more convenient being able to connect directly to regional AMTRACK lines.

dchurchwellbusiness

A great ride from SR North to San Rafael, it felt good and I had a great new view on the scenery. On the way back the horn was blown constantly and so loudly that it almost drove me nuts. I think they sounded the horn around 50 times within an hour. I didn't notice this or the constant announcing of "arriving/departing" at each station on the way to San Rafael but on the way back it made the experience not worth it. I did sit on opposite ends each trip so maybe I ended up on the horn end on the way back (North End of Train). So for a solo trip make sure you have ear buds, if you plan on talking on the train with a friend, reconsider that idea.

Trini Amador III

The train is gorgeous. Sure the scheduling is about an hour apart but the ridership is very low still. As folks work out their schedules to the train the scheduling will improve. I see people complaining about riders being loud...uh, really? That is like complaining about WalMart because the shoppers are behaving badly. Blame the people not the entity. The cost? More riders could lower costs. Give it time. Well done everyone. Well done. Pride.