The Gilroy Garlic Festival is celebrating its 40th year anniversary this weekend, July 27-29, and Caltrain is ready to get you to and from there aboard special trains chartered by the festival.
The chartered trains will run Saturday and Sunday and are set to depart from the San Jose Diridon Station at 10 a.m. Tickets for this special train are sold separately and can be purchased through the festival website. Caltrain will run on its regular weekend schedule.
Passengers traveling southbound from the Peninsula to the event should take train 422 to the Diridon Station, which arrives at 9:52 a.m. From there, the Garlic Train will depart San Jose Diridon at 10 a.m. and will get riders to the Gilroy Caltrain Station at 11 a.m. Riders can then take a short shuttle ride to the festival entrance.
For the return trip, shuttles will begin taking people back to the Gilroy Station to connect with the Garlic Train at 2:45 p.m., with the last shuttle at 3:40 p.m. The northbound Garlic Train will depart the Gilroy Station at 4 p.m., arriving at the Diridon Station by 5 p.m. From there, passengers can take trains 803 or 435 to their destinations up the Peninsula.
The Garlic Festival begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. Attendees taking the train to San Jose Diridon can purchase a Caltrain day pass or one-way ticket for their trip by using the Caltrain Mobile Ticket App, a station ticket machine or by using their Clipper card.
Parking at Caltrain stations costs $5.50 for the day, and permits can be purchased through ticket machines onsite. Paid parking rules are enforced throughout the day.
To make a pleasant trip for all riders, Caltrain reminds riders to drink responsibly and to remember that open alcoholic beverages are prohibited on trains beginning at 9 p.m. after events.
For schedule and fare information or for help planning your trip, call 1-800-660-4287 (TTY 650-508-6448) or visit www.caltrain.com or www.samtrans.com.
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About Caltrain: Owned and operated by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, Caltrain provides commuter rail service from San Francisco to San Jose, with limited commute service to Gilroy. Caltrain enjoyed five years of consecutive monthly ridership increases, surpassing more than 65,000 average weekday riders. While the Joint Powers Board assumed operating responsibilities for the service in 1992, the railroad celebrated 150 years of continuous passenger service in 2014. Planning for the next 150 years of Peninsula rail service, Caltrain is on pace to electrify the corridor, reduce diesel emissions by 97 percent by 2040 and add more service to more stations.