San Jose and Burbank airports

[DesertDude]

For over ten years, members of my family have been flying into the Oakland airport to visit my sister who lives in northern California. About five years ago, my sister moved to the Tracy/Manteca area. Cheaper cost of living for her, but not as accessible from the airport for us. Earlier this year, I learned that the ACE train goes directly from San Jose Int'l airport to a station that's a five minute drive from her house. This month, I'll be flying into San Jose for the first time and riding the ACE train to go see her. This is much more convenient than taking two BART trains to the Dublin/Pleasanton station, and then having her drive all the way to Dublin/Pleasanton for pickup.

I have a friend who periodically visits her brother in Arroyo Grande, CA (central coast). When she goes, she usually flies into LAX, and then takes a commuter flight to Santa Barbara. Her brother then drives all the way down to Santa Barbara to pick her up and take her up to Arroyo Grande. Until I told her, she never realized that she could fly into Burbank airport and then transfer to a Pacific Surfliner train that will take her right to Arroyo Grande (Grover Beach station). Of course she could fly into LAX and take the shuttle to Union Station, but that’s certainly not as convenient as Burbank.

These are just two examples, but I wonder how many people traveling in California are unaware of how convenient it may be to use one of these smaller airports and take rail to their final destination.

Now I realize that these airports are limited both in terms of flights offered and possible expansion. In the case of my friend traveling to Arroyo Grande, there really aren’t any good flights from Salt Lake to Burbank. But, if she lived in say, Phoenix or Denver, it would be a very viable option for her. I have a feeling that it is a viable option for others who have never even considered it.

With all that being said, I wonder if rail travel in California could be increased simply by promoting these two airports as a convenient alternative.

Thoughts?

 

[BCL]

Even with poor on-time performance, SFO has more flights and passengers than SJC and OAK combined. That's just sort of the way it is no matter how the airports try to market themselves.

 

[trainman74]

In the case of my friend traveling to Arroyo Grande, there really aren’t any good flights from Salt Lake to Burbank.

I looked this up, since SLC actually is a nonstop destination from Burbank -- turns out there's only one SLC-BUR flight a day, in the form of SkyWest/Delta Connection service, scheduled to arrive BUR at 7:10 P.M. Unfortunately, the last Surfliner to Grover Beach departs the BUR station at 3:22 P.M.

It's even a little iffy to get to Santa Barbara from that flight, since the last Surfliner to Santa Barbara departs BUR at 7:32 P.M. That's probably doable if the flight is on time and there's no checked luggage involved, but I personally wouldn't depend on it. (There's a later bus that runs from L.A. Union Station to Goleta, which makes all the Surfliner stops except BUR.)

The return trip is even more problematic, since the flight to SLC departs early in the morning, at 7:10 A.M.

 

[gswager]

Other option is to fly into LAX airport and then board on FlyAway bus which will take you between airport and Union station, non-stop. It's a very comfortable ride, about 15 to 20 minutes. From there, you can board on Pacific Surfliner.

 

[user 3575]

Also, note that ACE doesn't serve the San Jose airport; they stop at Santa Clara/University (three times morning-southbound to San Jose, evening-northbound to Stockton.) Santa Clara has direct, free VTA bus service (#10, Airport Flyer) to SJC terminals, with departures every few minutes (< 20) but there is a transfer required between train and bus-to-airport.

 

[tomfuller]

When my DIL dropped me off at the Burbank airport station (February), I had no clue as to which track the southbound Surfliner would be coming in on. Nearly an hour after the Surfliner I was ticketed on was due, I was picked up by another Surfliner to LAX. There are canopies with benches for waiting. The canopy beside the southbound track should be labeled (Southbound trains LAX with an arrow to the right).

The northbound canopy should have "Northbound trains Santa Barbara also with an arrow to the right".

 

[tp49]

If I was heading to Tracy/Manteca I'd also consider flying into Sacramento (SMF) and taking the San Joaquin down to either Stockton or Modesto. Come to think of it you could do the same route from Oakland (OKJ) on the SJ to Stockton or Modesto. Both Stockton and Modesto are close to Tracy/Manteca and provide more options over the limited commute hour ACE service.

As for Burbank Airport, it is really only a viable option if Southwest is the carrier of choice as they have the most flights in and out of there.

 

[beautifulplanet]

DesertDude, I think it is great you have figured out this air-rail connection, flying into San Jose airport, and taking ACE commuter rail to Tracy. If it actually works out for you when taking into consideration ACE's limited schedule (no Saturday/Sunday service, only 4 afternoon trips out of San Jose), then that's cool!

As you already wrote some previous posts about taking Amtrak to Stockton - Amtrak idea became obsolete now with the ACE itinerary, didn't it?

I didn't check the flight arrival times myself, but as both Delta as well as AirAlaska/SkyWest seem to offer direct flights from Salt Lake City to San Jose, it could possibly work out when having an San Jose arrival in the afternoon just in time for ACE to leave San Jose. Amazing!

Getting off-topic: Did you hear about some plans for high-speed rail from California to Nevada to Utah yet? There is a company called DesertXpress Enterprises, LLC (doesn't that somehow fit to your screenname? ), that has the idea to build a high-speed rail service called XpressWest across a network first connecting Victorville to Las Vegas, then Palmdale to Las Vegas (and thus Los Angeles and San Francisco/Sacramento, once California High-Speed Rail Phase 1 is fully built), and among other lines also expand with a Las Vegas to Salt Lake City line. So possibly instead of flying to visit your sister, it might be possible to take high-speed rail. It might have possibly have taken less than 3 hours from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas, 1h 22mins from Las Vegas to Victorville, and then possibly 2 hours from Victorville via Palmdale to Modesto. Would this have been an alternative to flying for you, in case it existed? Some might think it is unfortunate, that Xpress West seems to not be able to follow through with their plans. In case all these areas would be located f.e. in the European Union, in the country of France, the lines probably all would have been built already, but by the public, not by a private company. With how reality looks like, currently the western part of a country can consider itself lucky if it gets at least one single high-speed line, Los Angeles to San Francisco, built.

More on the XpressWest project here in the forum - or here on the official website.

 

[Rob]

I'll be arriving in LA on my next train trip, but unlike previous trips, I'll fly home out of Burbank instead of LAX.

On the last trip I rented my car right at the train station and returned it to LAX. The first problem was getting plunged into morning rush hour traffic in a big, strange city after two days on a train. The next problem was the huge traffic jam around LAX when I returned the car on the trip home. And this was only mid day traffic. I'd hate to see what traffic is like around rush hour. Lucky I left Santa Barbara real early.

On the upcoming trip, I'll arrive at the downtown Amtrak and take the short ride up to Burbank Airport on the Surfliner where I can rent a car and fly out of on the way home. I believe this will eliminate most of the traffic hassles. I can't get a Southwest nonstop home to Milwaukee from Burbank like I can from LAX but having to make a connection seems like a small price to pay to avoid a lot of LA traffic twice.

 

[trainman74]

When my DIL dropped me off at the Burbank airport station (February), I had no clue as to which track the southbound Surfliner would be coming in on. Nearly an hour after the Surfliner I was ticketed on was due, I was picked up by another Surfliner to LAX. There are canopies with benches for waiting. The canopy beside the southbound track should be labeled (Southbound trains LAX with an arrow to the right).

The northbound canopy should have "Northbound trains Santa Barbara also with an arrow to the right".

The problem is that although the Amtrak and Metrolink trains usually operate on the "correct" track at BUR (platform on the right in the direction of travel), they don't always do so. I'm sure the signage could be better, of course.