SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed Thursday morning in separate incidents involving Caltrain, a commuter rail system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States, local media reported.

    A woman was hit by a train and killed at about 5:50 a.m. as she walked across Caltrain tracks in Santa Clara station.

    Hours later, a train struck a small pickup truck at Auzerais Avenue in San Jose, killing the male driver inside.

    Including the two deaths ahead of New Year's Eve, a total of 19people have been killed in 2009 while crossing Caltrain tracks, only one shy of the record 20 fatalities in 1995, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.

    The past year also saw high-profile teenager suicides along Caltrain route in Palo Alto, where four students from the same Gunn High School took their own lives separately by stepping onto Caltrain tracks.

    "This has been a very difficult year for Caltrain," Dunn was quoted by the San Jose Mercury News as saying.

    "The impacts of these tragedies weigh heavily on our employees. Caltrain continues to work diligently to educate the public about safety around railroad tracks," she said.

    According to numbers released by Caltrain on its website, it carried a total of 11.96 million commuters in fiscal year 2008, the highest annual ridership in the rail line's history of more than 140 years.