- By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer
- Jan 12, 2024 (SFExaminer.com)
A special Caltrain honoring Martin Luther King Jr. will shuttle riders to The City on Monday, as part of a day of events in San Francisco celebrating the iconic civil rights leader’s life and legacy on his eponymous holiday.
The regional rail agency and the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation are teaming up once again to run a special “Celebration Train” from San Jose to San Francisco.
The train, the route of which pays tribute to the 54-mile 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches led by King, will depart San Jose Diridon station at 9:30 a.m. and arrive in San Francisco by 10:40 a.m. It will stop in Palo Alto and San Mateo en route to The City. There will be no special southbound service following the ride’s conclusion, Caltrain officials said.
The NorCal MLK Foundation will hold a march and parade honoring those marches, as well as the 1965 Voting Rights Act the demonstrations prompted. The route begins at the San Francisco Caltrain station at 11:00 a.m. and ends in Yerba Buena Gardens.
Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard told The Examiner that the agency “has been proud to partner with the NorCal MLK Association in celebrating the legacy of Dr. King for decades through the Celebration Train.”
Both the train and its route can be traced back to the 1960s, when the late Coretta Scott King launched more than two dozen “Freedom Train” services to honor her husband’s life. The Associated Press reported in 2015 that Scott King chose the San Jose-to-San Francisco route because its length was nearly equivalent to that of the 1965 marches.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley organized the country’s final “Freedom Train” ride in 2015, and the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation-organized “Celebration Train” debuted a year later.
Aaron Grizzell, the NorCal MLK Foundation’s executive director, told The Examiner that the train “emerged out of our mutual desire to continue honoring this legacy.”
He added that the service “speaks to the commitment of our Caltrain partner in ensuring that we honor the importance of the work of Dr. King both now and into the future.”
“For 160 years, the rails we run on have helped to bring communities together and we invite the public to be a part of that great tradition on Monday,” Bouchard added.
Monday’s attendees must register in advance to reserve a special commemorative ticket, which can also be used for a free return trip that same day after 1 p.m. Quantities are limited to 10 per person, and the commemorative tickets can be picked up at riders’ departing station an hour before travel.
Planned onboard activities include free giveaways for children, live performances, trivia and more.
In addition to the special train, Caltrain is also running a modified service schedule for the holiday. Parking at any of the agency’s stations will cost $2.25 on Monday, which is 50 cents less than the price on a regular day. Caltrain officials said that the parking permits can be purchased ahead of time on the agency’s mobile app or at any one of its stations.
