San Fran stop

[redsandal]

hoping to take the coast starlight to san francisco from lax later this year. which is the best stop there to detrain and board for the return trip. would prefer the actual station rather than a bus stop. thanks!

 

[johnny.menhennet]

hoping to take the coast starlight to san francisco from lax later this year. which is the best stop there to detrain and board for the return trip. would prefer the actual station rather than a bus stop. thanks!

Well if you don't want a bus, you can detrain at San Jose. If you get in a few minutes early, you can hop on a 8:30p Caltrain to San Fran, or 9:30p if late or right on time. Coming back, you could leave San Fran at any time in the morning.

 

[joro]

hoping to take the coast starlight to san francisco from lax later this year. which is the best stop there to detrain and board for the return trip. would prefer the actual station rather than a bus stop. thanks!

We boarded at Emeryville last summer. The station is small and it was very clean but had no lounge for sleeper passengers. We felt very safe. Not so sure about Jack London station at Oakland.

 

[MARC Rider]

Amtrak has a staffed station in downtown San Fransisco right next to the Ferry Building at the Foot of Market St. on the Embarcadero. This has baggage service, restrooms, Quicktrak machines and a small waiting area. Buses to Emeryville depart from there (actually a short distance away on the street). The last time I used it, I was connecting to a Capitol Corridor train. The bus went nonstop from the Ferry Building to the Emeryville train Station in about 30 minutes, even with some pretty spectacular traffic on the bay Bridge. The bus also makes stops in other places in downtown SF, but from the timetable, it's not clear exactly what the route is.

 

[Shanghai]

I have taken the Ambus from Emeryville & Jack London to the Ferry building several times.

The bus (coach) is comfortable and the trip is short. There is a special bus lane to the

approach to the bridge that bypasses most of the traffic.

 

[zephyr17]

BTW, the station near the Ferry Building is station code SFC.

 

[thully]

I had actually never thought of that - that's a great idea if you want to get from Southern California to San Francisco without ever setting foot on a bus! This may spur me to change my current reservation for the San Joaquin+Surfliner+bus to SF in two weeks over to the CS - for some reason, the Starlight wasn't offered on a SAN-SFC itinerary, but is to SJC.

Side note - you can also take the CS to Richmond and transfer to BART there, but that makes more sense when coming from the north as opposed to coming from the south.

1346900457[/url]' post='392101']

1346900004[/url]' post='392098']hoping to take the coast starlight to san francisco from lax later this year. which is the best stop there to detrain and board for the return trip. would prefer the actual station rather than a bus stop. thanks!

Well if you don't want a bus, you can detrain at San Jose. If you get in a few minutes early, you can hop on a 8:30p Caltrain to San Fran, or 9:30p if late or right on time. Coming back, you could leave San Fran at any time in the morning.

 

[jb64]

The standard connection from CS Northbound to San Francisco is at Jack London Square at Oakland. From there you get on a bus, as said a fairly nice bus, for a short ride across the bay. There are several stops and most of them are just a bus stop. The SFC stop is the only one with a shelter/ticket office, etc. If you are checking luggage, I think you have to pick the Ferry stop. If you did not check luggage, you can get off whichever one is closest to your destination. We chose to get off at the first stop which was the financial district because that was where most of the taxis will wait. It really is not a bad bus ride and it is rather pretty to see the lights of the city as you travel across the bay.

On return, we left from the Ferry bulding because we wanted to wait in a waiting area rather than on the side of street because it was pouring rain. Doesn't really matter which stops you are ticketed for as long as you have a ticket for one of them.

Have a great trip.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I thought the bus transfers were all made at Emeryville.

 

[darien-l]

for some reason, the Starlight wasn't offered on a SAN-SFC itinerary, but is to SJC.

I just noticed this today - it's some strange new bug in Arrow. If you book LAX-SFC, you are offered the Starlight with the bus connection, but if you have any connecting trains prior to LAX, the Starlight+bus option isn't offered for some reason. In your case, you can simply book SAN-OKJ and then the OKJ-SFC bus (it's number 6014) separately using the multi-city option. It worked for me.

I thought the bus transfers were all made at Emeryville.

No, the Coast Starlight bus connection is definitely at Oakland - Jack London Sq.

 

[George Harris]

before getting all excited about making a train to train transfer at San Jose, there are a couple of things to consider:

Southbound weekdays should not be a problem as there are multiple early morning trains, but on weekends the connection is cutting things a little fine. The first Caltrain out of San Francisco on Saturday and sunday leaves 4th & King at 8:15 and gets to San Jose at 9:51. the coast Starlight is scheduled out at 10:07, so that gives you only 16 minutes. If all goes well, should be no problem, but it is not a guranteed connection, so if something happens to Caltrain, which occasionally does, you would be out of luck. Also, there would be no possibility of checking baggage on a weekend as you would not be in San Jose in time to do so. If you did not have it already, you would have to pick up your ticket in that 16 minutes as well as get to the correct platform.

Going north the Coast Starlight is DUE into San Jose at 8:27pm. The last Caltrain out is at 10:30pm, except on Sunday night, when the last train is at 9:00pm. Given the many things that can go wrong on the long distance side, you had better have a reasonably good "Plan B" for the northbound direction. A near zero time is not as practical in this direction. Caltrain is a "POP" that is Proof of Payment system, so you would have to go by the ticket machine and get a ticket for the trip during the transfer period, as well. That would be $9.00 per person or $4.50 for child or senior.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

Well the bus connections to the East Bay are almost all made at Emeryville, with the exception of the CS. For the passengers coming from/going to Southern California, the connection is made at Oakland. For CS pax coming from/going to points north of the Bay Area, you make the connection at EMY. All CC trains connect at Emeryville.

 

[sechs]

I thought the bus transfers were all made at Emeryville.

For the Coast Starlight only:Northbound, SF-bound passengers get off at OKJ, and those coming from SF board at EMY.

Southbound, SF-bound passengers get off at EMY, and those coming from SF board at OKJ.

This is so that the two groups don't get mixed, particularly during high season.

All other trains only use EMY for SF transfers.