Millbrae Caltrain Station

This «newer» state of the art (at the time) Bart and Caltrain station has gotten old quite quickly. It’s sketchy during the night and abandoned during the day (like any of the stations on the Bart line), but sadly there really isn’t anything to do nearby.
I grew up in Millbrae and while there’s an In-​n-​out nearby if you’re adventurous, don’t stray too far before missing your train. A busy hub when it comes to Giants games as well, so be prepared to search for parking on your way into the city.
Overall bland and the area around it sucks. Check out the palm trees that must cost a fortune to maintain. This ain’t San Francisco or Palo Alto yet.

The main transfer point for Bart and Caltrain. It also is a good source for airport parking if youre organized enough to reserve in advance. Seems to be under utilized if you ask me. Sometimes if Guittard chocolate is i. Full swing, this place smells like brownies and/​or chocolate. Weird!

Not a bad station. It’s clean, feels relatively safe, and is lit up at night. I don’t want to ding them on the BART/​Caltrain schedule since I’m not sure how much they can control that. It’s a great connector between BART and Caltrain before and after work hours, but it’s terrible during the day. BART would drop me off a few minutes after the Caltrain had left already and I would have to wait a whole hour for the next Caltrain. Instead of waiting, I’ve learned to walk down El Camino Real and grab something to eat while I wait.

Very complex station that is easy to navigate through! You can hop on Caltrain, Bart and even some
shuttles. If you’re fortunate enough, your company may even have free shuttles from this location.
Make sure to give yourself extra time if arriving at this station anywhere from 7:30am-9:30am on weekdays. Parking in the Bart garage may take time and patience. Speaking of the Bart garage, you do not have to be a Bart rider to park here!!! To make life easier, set up the «EZ Rider» on your clipper card so you don’t need to carry cash for parking!!! The machine to «tag» is directly next to the machines that only accept cash. You just need to make sure your car won’t be in the garage for more than 24 hours and you’re good to go!
Bottom line: Set up EZ rider to a smoother commute.

I usually commute to San Francisco from San Jose Diridon (I have a Caltrain monthly pass). Because the bullet trains stop running south bound after 6:33, and the trains get to be two hours to San Jose after that, I drive to Millbrae when I have after work plans. (Fremont would be closer, but I’ve heard too many horror stories about not being able to find parking that I’ve never even tried it)
This station is convenient because I can use my monthly pass and also come back using the BART! It’s also extremely clean and very easy to find parking.

Parking is horrible. The parking machine was out of order and didn’t take bills. The machines that make change only take $ 10 or $ 20. The signs are not clear when you cannot park from 4am-​10am. Got several tickets there because of that.

Alright Caltrain station I guess. Not much to do though like most Caltrain stations. Unfortunately this one isn’t really located next to a downtown like PA or MV so it can get really boring. It’s always a struggle when you just miss the train because of the BART timing so you’re stuck there for an hour. I’m really not a fan of this station even though I’ve spent way too many hours to count trying to catch a Caltrain. I really wish BART and Caltrain would try to at least properly time some more of their BART arrivals to Caltrain arrivals – would make a commuter’s life way less difficult. Not sure how I feel about safety – I’ve stood here at night… and not felt the safest contrary to other reviewers. It’s not so bad about ten minutes before the train arrives, but at an hour before the train, lots of really sketch people wandering around.

The station is very nice and clean. You feel safe there as well. I’m here every day during week while en route to work. There is also parking available for fairly cheap rates.

a train service that fails more than twice a year is not reliable. Today I am stuck in Mountain View train due to an ‘incident’
you can depend on Caltrain to be late at least 5 times a year and at the worst time, when you want to get to work or get home

This really tells you how horrible and disjointed our public transit system is in the Bay Area.
I typically takes the CalTrain to Millibrae, and then transit to BART to fly out of SFO. But on the return trip, what usually happens is as followed:
(1) I get onto the BART at SFO
(2) The train arrives at Millbrae. I need to then catch the Caltrain on the other side.
(3) The Caltrain always arrives 2 minutes afterward, leaving me absolutely no time to take my heavy luggage up and down the stairs and buy the Caltrain ticket.
I usually end up missing the train and having to wait an hour or two houirs for the next Caltrain.
These two publlic transits are just so dysfunctional that they could not even talk to each other to make life easier for transit users.

The architects have constructed a wind tunnel. Nowhere to hide from the wind or rain (when it does rain). Central station for BART and Caltrain. SamTrans has stopped most buses serving the station. BART agents as unhelpful here as every other station. Janitors keep the place fairly clean.

Convenient transfer to sfo, well staffed, clean, safe. The restrooms smell like homeless people sleep in them all day… urine soaked stink. Otherwise, can’t complain. When I’m transferring from Caltrain to BART, there’s always a train waiting.

Caltrain is great. You can eat and drink and party on it on the way to SF.
This station, as in all other CalTrain’s, rarely is late (unlike Bart which has delays every 5 minutes). Big fan. I just with they had more locations to drop off in SF.

Kaori M. nailed it:
This station needs:
1. Good and clean rest room.
2. Café and book store open during train hours. because LOOOOONG waiting time.
3. More bench.
4. Waiting room without winds.
5. More lights during night.
6. More ticket machines.
7. More signs for next train
8. More announcement about current status (often delay)
9. More schedule signs
10. More efficient pass to BART/​Caltrain
That said, I live in the city and the BART is dirty and the MUNI is crowded, so comparatively… this isn’t so bad…

– BART to Caltrain connection
– Windchill here sucks at night
– Clean
– Close to restaurants along El Camino Real
– Bus Stop for SamTrans 390 is close by too.

Great station along the route from SFO to Mountain View. I flew into the SFO, but needed an easy way to get to Mountain View. The CalTrain was great. It was clean, easy to use, not terribly expensive ($ 7 from Zone 2 to Zone 4). Going south from SFO couldn’t be any easier at this price. I would highly recommend CalTrain.

As a Japanese (train country, on time, run every 5 min), I needed to write a review.
Overall, Caltrain is lame, so all stations are not good, but especially this station needs to be improved, because
1. such an important transfer point to SFO. It is one of the largiest U.S. entrance from all over the world.
2. Important connection between BART and Caltrain.
This station needs:
1. Good and clean rest room.
2. Café and book store open during train hours. because LOOOOONG waiting time.
3. More bench.
4. Waiting room without winds.
5. More lights during night.
6. More ticket machines.
7. More signs for next train
8. More announcement about current status (often delay)
9. More schedule signs
10. more efficient pass to BART/​Caltrain

Parking pretty much only takes cash…
This is a great station for the following reasons:
+ Plenty of parking
+ 1 stop to the airport (at certain hours… check schedule)
+ Airport parking
+ Connections to BART and Caltrain
+ Close to The City
+ New
+ Safe
+ Clean

Communing on CalTrain is an experience — the off hour trains are nice. Seats are available and the conductors usually stop and chat with the usual riders and barely hassle you for a ticket/​Clipper card once they see you a few times on the same train. (make sure you have paid, tho — they’ll mess you up with a $ 300 fine if you don’t! Don’t risk it or the embarrassment…) There are ticket machines everywhere — they added a ton of Clipper Card readers and vending machines at this station, on both levels and at each track (BART and CalTrain) so super convenient for purchasing tix.
This station is one of the cleanest, but I have to say it may be because it’s also fricken’ windy just about every late afternoon. But, that’s Millbrae for you!
I don’t understand people complaining about ‘missing a BART transfer to CalTrain’ at this station — get on the BART train that’s 15 – 20 min earlier… — It’s not rocket science. Don’t think that just because the schedules show a 2 min connection time that you’re gonna make that — take things into account like delays caused by idiot passengers holding the doors or suicidal jumpers or whatever — c’mon, I mean really — They’re not even run by the same agency for Pete’s sake. If you’re going CalTrain to BART — that one is a bit easer to swallow with only a 15 – 20 wait at the most if you miss it. And it’s the end of the line for BART at this station, so a train is usually on time when headed Northbound.
If you don’t have that much time to spare then suck it up and deal with it — you miss that connection and you’re gonna be waiting anyway — may as well be a few mins early in my opinion.
OK. I’ll stop ranting. But, overall, this is a clean, well lit station with TONS of parking (park in the garage for CalTrain so you don’t overpay!!).

One of the few Caltrains stations that also have Bart at the the same station which makes riding public transportation easy, especially going to SFO!
The station seems to be cleaner than most other Caltrains/​Bart stations which could make you feel more comfortable while waiting for your train.