One of the changes that comes with a new job, is a new commute. Twice-a-week I now make my way down from the Mission district in San Francisco to FlutterFlow HQ in Mountain View. I’ll miss my (60+ minute) walks to Firebase HQ, but enjoy the new travel experience… well… if I wasn’t so anxious about travel.

Last week was the first time I took the CalTrain from 22nd street station in San Francisco to its Mountain View station. The train was surprisingly full-yet-quiet; clearly lots of experienced morning commuters. Many of them were reading physical books, so I felt somewhat out of place with my e-reader. My laptop wasn’t the most useful as there was no wifi.

In a few months the current diesel trains will be replaced by fully electric trains, which will run more frequently, be faster, and… they’ll have wifi. We’ll see if the demeanor remains as calm then. :-)

How CalTrain/Clipper/Google Pay handles the payment was “interesting”.

Red markings are my additions to clarify.

So Google Pay initially charged me $14.45 for the train ride when I checked in in San Francisco, and then refunded $6.75 when I checked out in Mountain View. Then on the way back it charged me $9.95 when I checked in in Mountain View and refunded $2.25 when I checked out.

In both cases I paid $7.70 for the ride; and the difference in initial check-in fare is from how far I can travel on the line from that station.

I mean, it’s technically correct (the best kind of correct), but I still a bit confusing initially - and a bit overly focused on system optimization instead of user experience. :-D

Oh well… the train works!

More on my commute in the coming week.