Finally those Clipper Add Value Machines are finally coming to Caltrain. At least at the San Francisco Station at 4th & King. This is good news for Caltrain passengers who had to go over to Walgreens to add passes or buy a Clipper card. The machines are at the east end of the station (where people enter from King Street). They are not functioning yet but hopefully ready before November 1st.

The shiny new machines have a nemesis, namely the pigeons that hang around the station. They have a nasty habit of really messing up the floors, seats, and people who are sitting around in those uncomfortable benches. And it can make reading a newspaper or book dicey at times. You are sitting there minding your own business when the pigeon decides to use you as a toilet. That is why you always check the seat before you sit down at 4th & King.

The janitorial staff does do a good job of trying to keep it clean but it is a diffcult task. Caltrain really needs to find a solution to keeping the pigeons out of the station.