Based on turnout to past events, the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) anticipates 25,000 riders on Sunday as people head to the Super Bowl. "Plan, plan, plan! And use transit," said VTA's Dino Guevarra, at a press event held at the Mountain View station Friday morning. "And use the transit app." Mountain View is where Caltrain riders coming from San Francisco can transfer to the VTA orange line to reach Levi's Stadium.
The app will allow game goers to buy day passes good on Caltrain and VTA for the $27 round trip. Guevarra stressed that regular Clipper users, or people who use contactless payment, should get the app instead because they anticipate long lines at the validation machines.
There are a couple of issues for regular transit riders with the Super Bowl plans, however. For one, due to "security," trains coming from the east will stop at Lick Mill; there will be no through service past the stadium (see map below). A bus bridge will be provided, but this is a major inconvenience for people who aren't going to the game and are just trying to get around.
And a hiccup that's going to be a major problem for a few bike commuters: apparently, the Transportation Security Administration forced BikeLink to deactivate its lockers at the Mountain View station. For reasons that are unclear, they did it late Friday morning instead of Saturday night before the game.
Rick Ednie, a technician with BikeLink, was busy deactivating the lockers at 10:30 a.m. A few had bikes in them. The owners, he said, won't be able to get their bikes until Monday.
"BikeLink users were emailed about this, but apparently the signage didn’t get posted when it should have," said Caltrain's Dan Liberman. He invited cyclists who have their bikes trapped to contact him [LiebermanD@samtrans.com]. "I should be able to get them taken care of."
Of course, this all begs the question: if the TSA is locking out the bike lockers, why isn't the Mountain View parking lot closed to cars?
On a related note, the Silicon Bike Coalition normally offers a bike valet at Levi's Stadium events. Not for the Super Bowl. "Levi's Stadium declined our offer to provide bike parking," the Silicon Bicycle Coalition's Deanna Chevas told Streetsblog.
Moreover, cyclists who normally go through the area should expect major detours onto heavily trafficked roads. See map below:
VTA, meanwhile, said it will run extra trains on game day with eight-to-10-minute headways, up from the normal 20.
More from the VTA:
Key VTA Messages to riders:
- Plan ahead before game day
- Use VTA.ORG/SBLX as a one-stop resource for service information and regional connections
- Rely on the Transit App for real-time updates, trip planning, and fare purchase
- Give yourself extra time due to increased demand
- VTA Customer Service will be open on Super Bowl Sunday at 408-321-2300
Regional Connectivity:
- From East Bay: BART to Milpitas, transfer to VTA Light Rail Orange Line to Lick Mill Station (Levi’s Stadium.)
- From Downtown San Jose: multiple stations take the Green Line to Lick Mill station.(Levi’s Stadium)
- San Francisco & Peninsula: Caltrain to Mountain View, transfer to VTA Light Rail to Great America Station.
Not on that list are Amtrak's Capitol Corridor trains from Sacramento and Oakland directly to the stadium via the Santa Clara-Great America station. Amtrak is requiring reservations on game day. ACE is also running special, game-day trains all the way from Stockton on Sunday. It's unclear if the BikeLink lockers at this location were also deactivated.
