EMY to San Francisco bus

[markdm4805]

As others mentioned if you really really want to catch the Amtrak bus to San Francisco you can always purchase a separate ticket online even from BKY to SFC. This will get around the bus only ban in Amtrak's computer system. The ticket will probably be for a different bus but your driver should accept it. Also technically you do have to select what stop you want when you buy the ticket but I always book to SFC and then get off at which ever one I want. Just make sure you get on the right bus for say the wharf or 4th and Market. There is usually 2 buses. No matter where you get off it's usually fairly easy either by Muni or short Lyft Uber ride to get to your final destination downtown. Also folks a little secret from a bay area native. If you are going to ride Muni a lot on your visit to San Francisco. Avoid the extremely expensive Muni visitor passport that includes rides on the cable cars. Instead download Muni Mobile from the play store or apple app store and buy a 5 dollar daily pass and just pay extra whenever you should ride a cable car. This will save you big.

 

[BCL]

As others mentioned if you really really want to catch the Amtrak bus to San Francisco you can always purchase a separate ticket online even from BKY to SFC. This will get around the bus only ban in Amtrak's computer system. The ticket will probably be for a different bus but your driver should accept it. Also technically you do have to select what stop you want when you buy the ticket but I always book to SFC and then get off at which ever one I want. Just make sure you get on the right bus for say the wharf or 4th and Market. There is usually 2 buses. No matter where you get off it's usually fairly easy either by Muni or short Lyft Uber ride to get to your final destination downtown. Also folks a little secret from a bay area native. If you are going to ride Muni a lot on your visit to San Francisco. Avoid the extremely expensive Muni visitor passport that includes rides on the cable cars. Instead download Muni Mobile from the play store or apple app store and buy a 5 dollar daily pass and just pay extra whenever you should ride a cable car. This will save you big.

I don't know if that works. It should work for any of the "unreserved" buses attached to Capitol Corridor, but won't necessarily work for the buses connected to reserved trains (CZ, CS, San Joaquin).

But I noted earlier that it's easy enough to just book the exact bus using multi-city. And the train segment doesn't actually have to connect with the bus segment. That's one of the weird things about the requirement to book with a train, plus the quirks of forcing something with multi-city. In fact the cheapest I could find was $10 for RIC-BKY, then EMY-SFC. Not sure why this was cheaper than BKY-EMY-SFC ($11.50), but it is.

This is how I arranged it with multi-city:



And for Segment 1 I could pick anything:



But for the bus segment there is a difference between unreserved and reserved (5005 is connected to 5):

 

[Irelandvegas65]

For those of you intimately familiar with the EMY to SFO bus I have a question. E we will be arriving on the coast starlight from SEA and the schedule says around 910 am. Our hotel is near the gate to Chinatown the hotel Triton. Is that walkable? Or would you recommend Uber/Lyft ?

 

[willem]

[...] Also technically you do have to select what stop you want when you buy the ticket but I always book to SFC and then get off at which ever one I want. Just make sure you get on the right bus for say the wharf or 4th and Market. There is usually 2 buses. [...]

Wait, what? I thought Amtrak had eliminated all San Francisco bus stops other than SFC. Certainly when I type San Francisco as a destination, my only "station" choice is SFC. Where are you finding other stops? In particular, if available, I would much rather go to or from SFF (adjacent to the Hyatt Regency) than SFC. Please tell me how I could arrange that.

 

[joelkfla]

Also technically you do have to select what stop you want when you buy the ticket but I always book to SFC and then get off at which ever one I want. Just make sure you get on the right bus for say the wharf or 4th and Market.

I thought the stops other than Sales Force had been discontinued. No?

If you are going to ride Muni a lot on your visit to San Francisco. Avoid the extremely expensive Muni visitor passport that includes rides on the cable cars. Instead download Muni Mobile from the play store or apple app store and buy a 5 dollar daily pass and just pay extra whenever you should ride a cable car. This will save you big.

Agree that one should download MuniMobile. But the website says a 1-day Visitor Passport on MuniMobile (as opposed to paper or Clipper) is $13. A single 1-way cable car ride is $8, with no discount fares available except late night. So the $5 pass + 1 $8 cable car ride equals the cost of the Visitor Passport, which includes unlimited cable cars.

The cost of a 3-day Visitor Passport on MuniMobile equals the cost of 3 day passes + 2 cable car rides, or 1 cable car RT.

A 7-day Visitor Passport costs the same as 5 day passes + 1 cable car RT.

Even if taking just 1 RT ride on the cable cars, the Visitor Passport comes out the same or better in all cases. That's only on MuniMobile; the VP is much more expensive on other media.

 

[PNW Pax]

For those of you intimately familiar with the EMY to SFO bus I have a question. E we will be arriving on the coast starlight from SEA and the schedule says around 910 am. Our hotel is near the gate to Chinatown the hotel Triton. Is that walkable? Or would you recommend Uber/Lyft ?

It's about a half mile from SFC to the Triton (great hotel, BTW). I consider that walkable if you don't have a lot of luggage.

 

[Bonser]

For those of you intimately familiar with the EMY to SFO bus I have a question. E we will be arriving on the coast starlight from SEA and the schedule says around 910 am. Our hotel is near the gate to Chinatown the hotel Triton. Is that walkable? Or would you recommend Uber/Lyft ?

That depends. Do you have luggage to consider? It's a fairly easy walk, maybe 15-20 minutes, and involves some inclines.

 

[stxSteve]

Used this bus yesterday. It only has ONE pickup/dropoff location at 555 Mission Street.

 

[BCL]

That depends. Do you have luggage to consider? It's a fairly easy walk, maybe 15-20 minutes, and involves some inclines.

It's relatively flat all the way. The serious inclines start at Grant going north into Chinatown, and going west into the Tenderloin.

 

[markdm4805]

For those of you intimately familiar with the EMY to SFO bus I have a question. E we will be arriving on the coast starlight from SEA and the schedule says around 910 am. Our hotel is near the gate to Chinatown the hotel Triton. Is that walkable? Or would you recommend Uber/Lyft ?

With luggage I would recommend a Uber or Lyft. It's about a 15 min walk but as others have said there will be hills at the end.

 

[markdm4805]

I thought the stops other than Sales Force had been discontinued. No?


Agree that one should download MuniMobile. But the website says a 1-day Visitor Passport on MuniMobile (as opposed to paper or Clipper) is $13. A single 1-way cable car ride is $8, with no discount fares available except late night. So the $5 pass + 1 $8 cable car ride equals the cost of the Visitor Passport, which includes unlimited cable cars.

The cost of a 3-day Visitor Passport on MuniMobile equals the cost of 3 day passes + 2 cable car rides, or 1 cable car RT.

A 7-day Visitor Passport costs the same as 5 day passes + 1 cable car RT.

Even if taking just 1 RT ride on the cable cars, the Visitor Passport comes out the same or better in all cases. That's only on MuniMobile; the VP is much more expensive on other media.

Thanks for the heads up I stand corrected. I had thought the SF bus route had returned to it's pre pandemic routing but apparently it is still just going to Salesforce Transit Center.

Ok I thought the paper passport price was the only price. So i go back to my old advice then that the Muni Visitor passport is a good deal if you plan to take at least 1 cable car ride. The cable cars actually are a pretty direct way to get to fisherman's wharf once you are actually on the car and moving. I say that because the lines at either end can be long during peak tourist times. But definitely if your going to get a visitor passport get it on the Muni Mobile app and if there are days you are sure you're not going to ride any cable cars then consider the 5 dollar adult day pass.

 

[joelkfla]

But definitely if your going to get a visitor passport get it on the Muni Mobile app and if there are days you are sure you're not going to ride any cable cars then consider the 5 dollar adult day pass.

If I did the calculations correctly, the only times you might beat the cost of the Visitor Passports is if you're using Muni for either 2 or 4 days, riding the cables on only one of those days, and buy a 1-day Visitor Passport + day passes for the other days. In all other cases, the 3-day Visitor Passport, or the 7-day Visitor Passport for 4-7 days, is a better deal even for just 2 days of cable car riding.

 

[stxSteve]

The cable cars are FREE for now, don"t know for how long. Most of the lines have just returned to service, it’s a celebrate their return thing.

 

[BCL]

Thanks for the heads up I stand corrected. I had thought the SF bus route had returned to it's pre pandemic routing but apparently it is still just going to Salesforce Transit Center.

It hasn't returned yet. There's now a single stop in San Francisco with no checked luggage like there was at the Transbay Terminal, Greyhound depot at the former temporary Transbay Terminal, or the building near the Ferry Building.

It's only at a bus stop in front of Chase Bank at 555 Mission St.

https://www.amtrak.com/stations/sfc​

Chase Bank​

555 Mission Street​

San Francisco, CA 94105​

​

Bus Stop - Curbside Bus Stop only (no shelter)​

 

[joelkfla]

The cable cars are FREE for now, don"t know for how long. Most of the lines have just returned to service, it’s a celebrate their return thing.

That was only for the month of August. It's back to normal now.
Cable Car Single Ride | SFMTA

 

[stxSteve]

That was only for the month of August. It's back to normal now.

Took several rides over the weekend, still free.

 

[MainerTrainer]

I have a question on getting from downtown San Francisco Emeryville. We’ll need a taxi or ride share to get to Salesforce Plaza from our hotel, so we might just skip the bus and take the ride share out to Emeryville to board the Voast Starlight tomorrow night. I know others have said the Salesforce area is safe but it looked a little sketchy when we got off there a couple days ago.

My question is, if we skip the bus, does Amtrak treat that like the airlines and once you miss a connection they void the rest of the reservation? I certainly don’t want to screw up our trip on the CS and the EB back to Chicago.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Since you're already Ticketed, why not just ride the Thruway Bus to Emeryville, the Bay Bridge Traffic can be horrific, and ride share can be Pricey in the City, especially when you add in the Bridge Toll.

And that area isn't Unsafe, there are much more seedy areas in the Bay Area and in the City.

 

[MainerTrainer]

Ok, thanks, Bob Dylan.

 

[BCL]

I have a question on getting from downtown San Francisco Emeryville. We’ll need a taxi or ride share to get to Salesforce Plaza from our hotel, so we might just skip the bus and take the ride share out to Emeryville to board the Voast Starlight tomorrow night. I know others have said the Salesforce area is safe but it looked a little sketchy when we got off there a couple days ago.

My question is, if we skip the bus, does Amtrak treat that like the airlines and once you miss a connection they void the rest of the reservation? I certainly don’t want to screw up our trip on the CS and the EB back to Chicago.

Thanks in advance!

Those bus rides are considered "reserved" bus rides, so if you miss them I think you could theoretically get the rest of your trip cancelled involuntarily if you miss it. It does take a while (I think two hours) for that to happen. I missed a reserved train once but was able to cancel and rebook a different train 25 minutes later.

But I'm not sure what would happen if you still show up for the train in time. I've heard of plenty of people who missed their bus and sought an emergency ride. Or where the bus had a problem and maybe Amtrak paid for taxis or ride shares. There's got to be some way for a conductor to deal with it. I thought that it might be possible to call it in to Amtrak.

 

[MainerTrainer]

We’re going to take the bus tomorrow. We don’t want to risk messing up the rest of our reservations.
Thanks all!

 

[Bonser]

We’re going to take the bus tomorrow. We don’t want to risk messing up the rest of our reservations.
Thanks all!

It's a long, long descent from checked bags and waiting room at Temporary TransBay. And will 555 Mission St. be the final product? An outdoor bus stop competing for space with Muni's #14?

 

[zephyr17]

It's a long, long descent from checked bags and waiting room at Temporary TransBay. And will 555 Mission St. be the final product? An outdoor bus stop competing for space with Muni's #14?

Well, they apparently refused space in the Salesforce Transit Center.

 

[BCL]

Well, they apparently refused space in the Salesforce Transit Center.

They've given a bunch of excuses, including the cost as well as access to other locations in San Francisco if a bus has to enter. AC Transit transbay buses aren't meant for anything but going to the transbay terminal and heading back to the East Bay.

 

[MainerTrainer]

We ended up taking the bus as scheduled. It arrived early so we got on and waited.
Now still at Emeryville with no ETA for the CS since it apparently hit car near San Jose. It was already two hours late. And the station here is under construction and the only bathrooms are porta-potties outside the station.