Transfer options at the end of the journey

[Meltilda]

My first foray into Amtrak is happening quite soon and as I make final arrangements for my whole trip I do have a question re transfer options once you reach your destination. I hope someone has some advice for me. It's amazing how much info these forums have already provided - so many, many thanks for that.

Two of my end journey points are Austin and San Francisco/Emery (Amtrak included transfer) and was wondering (hoping) if there are already taxis available when the trains come in, or do they need to be called on arrival? I'm not an Uber fan but will do if necessary.

Even though it's summer (August), I have planned on doing a lot of walking between hotels/transport depots - but Austin and SF are the two I'm most concerned about. Austin, because it's going to be about a zillion degrees when I arrive, and SF because the drop-off point is further/more convoluted route than planned. My accommodation for both cities is just a short, 30min walk away, but the treks come with difficulties as mentioned. I will also be laden with a backpack (with wheels), and a daypack.

Any info, personal experience advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[alpha3]

We arrived in San Fran on the Zephyr last year; Amtrak has a thruway bus that meets the train and it will take you into San Francisco from Emeryville as long as you book your ticket that way; there's no added fare for it. Thing is, the bus drop point used to be at Fisherman's Wharf but they've since changed it to Chase bank downtown. Our hotel was in Fisherman's Wharf; you could walk the distance but it would have been in the dark as the Zephyr was a bit late; there's also a significant homeless population there and I didn't want trouble. So I selected an Uber from my phone app and that was that, easy-peasy.

 

[zephyr17]

I am unclear about your reference to "San Francisco/Emery". That isn't one place. San Francisco and Emeryville are two different locations separated by a large body of water.

If you are ticketed to San Francisco (station code SFC), you will bused on a dedicated Amtrak bus over the Bay Bridge to the San Francisco stop. That is a curbside bus stop on Mission St with no facilities of any kind. You can call up an Uber/Lyft, which San Francisco has lots and lots of, or do a street hail. I'd do Uber/Lyft myself there. You'd likely get one in a minute or so.

Note that San Francisco is very hilly and Mission St and Market St are pretty much in the lowest area. If walking, any place will likely be uphill, perhaps quite steeply uphill, from there.

Emeryville, where the train actually arrives, is a full service station and will likely have cabs waiting on the CZ's arrival. Note that a cab from there into San Francisco will be expensive.

 

[caravanman]

I often struggle myself with that "last mile" to get from the train station. One can often look on google maps street view, and locate a nearby bus stop, and maybe zoom in and see if any bus there will be handy to travel to your destination. (The bus stop may have the name of the service provider, and so you can check schedules online).
To be honest, USA has a car culture, so you are as well to get a taxi on your arrival, it's pretty much expected!

 

[zephyr17]

I often struggle myself with that "last mile" to get from the train station. One can often look on google maps street view, and locate a nearby bus stop, and maybe zoom in and see if any bus there will be handy to travel to your destination. (The bus stop may have the name of the service provider, and so you can check schedules online).
To be honest, USA has a car culture, so you are as well to get a taxi on your arrival, it's pretty much expected!

San Francisco proper is very transit oriented. The Muni's coverage of the city is comprehensive with frequent service intervals. It is actually a tough town to drive and park in. Like New York City, transit is a better and more practical option than a car there.

The Bay Area overall, not so much, despite BART and CalTrain, but within the City of San Francisco, transit is a very good way to go.

With that said, it has a corollary in that luggage can be hard to deal with on Muni's crowded buses and light rail.

 

[caravanman]

San Francisco proper is very transit oriented. The Muni's coverage of the city is comprehensive with frequent service intervals. It is actually a tough town to drive and park in. Like New York City, transit is a better and more practical option than a car there.

The Bay Area overall, not so much, despite BART and CalTrain, but within the City of San Francisco, transit is a very good way to go.

With that said, it has a corollary in that luggage can be hard to deal with on Muni's crowded buses and light rail.

I always prefer public transport, but it can be difficult to get correctly orientated when first arriving. I have spent many happy times in SF on the trams, metro, and cable cars!
Talking of luggage, we caused chaos on the free Emery-go-round bus with all our luggage during the rush hour one visit.

 

[Palmland]

Best bet is just bite the bullet and take an Uber- especially with luggage. We’ve found, compared to taxis, the cars are often nicer, drivers friendlier, fares cheaper and, most importantly, if not at a major transit location it’s easier to get one.

But after getting into your hotel, local transit in downtown SF is fun, especially streetcars and cable cars.

 

[allanorn]

Austin is a small station so I don't think there will be any taxis waiting unless someone was just dropped off to pick up a train. @Bob Dylan knows Austin as well as anyone on the forum.

San Francisco/Emeryville is a different matter. If you have a bus ride into Amtrak's SFC stop (San Francisco), which I would recommend - that'll drop you off at the SalesForce Transit Center, and there are a few Muni buses you can take from there. You can get an idea of routes at times on the Muni site, or plug it into Google Maps. There may be a taxi rank nearby, but Uber/Lyft is easy to get. Check prices before you do rideshare, as SoMa has a lot of nightclubs and surge pricing can be a thing.

Do not walk from SFC to your hotel (or vice versa) at night. There are some neighborhoods like the Tenderloin that are fairly unsafe to walk around even during the daytime. Market Street is usually packed and there are a bunch of panhandlers around. SoMa isn't terrible, but it has its rough spots. FiDi isn't bad at night but those hotels aren't a 30-minute walk away. Everything else may have a hill involved at some point, and those hills can be really steep (hence, cable cars).

If you don't have a bus ride into the SFC station, and your ticketed stop is Emeryville (EMY), and you can't add on a bus ride to SFC - you're not in trouble but it'll depend on what train you're riding and more importantly, what time you are arriving. What I'm going to say after this paragraph is assuming your train is on time or close enough, which is probably a statement in of itself to make....

If you're riding on the Coast Starlight from LAX, or on a bus from the coast of California - you'll arrive at San Jose Diridon (SJC). You can catch Caltrain from Diridon to get into the city, then Muni/cab once you're in SF proper. Caltrain does not run all night, and the train you would catch is likely going to be an all-stop train. Yes, there's a way to get to BART from Diridon via the Rapid 500 bus, which is decently nice and an option if you just miss a later Caltrain departure.

For any other train - you're coming in from the north, which means you can take BART into the city from Richmond (RIC). In this case the BART station is within the same station area as Amtrak. BART can take you into the city where you can transfer to Muni buses. BART also stops at night but it runs later than Caltrain.

In any case - get the Clipper App on your phone and load it with cash if you're going to ride outside of the city. If you're only going to be in the city of San Francisco, MUNI has an app where you can get multiple-day visitor passes at a discount.

You might be able to pick up a taxi from EMY, but you will pay a king's ransom to ride into town. Expect that to be a backup option only.

 

[caravanman]

There are some neighborhoods like the Tenderloin that are fairly unsafe to walk around even during the daytime.

As a tourist, I have always enjoyed my time in San Francisco, and felt sad to read your post above. Folk have different levels of comfort, especially overseas visitors, which can lead to us either naively "walking into trouble", or otherwise perhaps wondering what all the fuss was about?
I appreciate that you live in SF, so have first hand knowledge, it's just that your post is enough to put me off visiting somewhere I though was pretty cool. Times and places change. Does "fairly unsafe" mean a probability of getting attacked, mugged, or ?

 

[Bonser]

As a tourist, I have always enjoyed my time in San Francisco, and felt sad to read your post above. Folk have different levels of comfort, especially overseas visitors, which can lead to us either naively "walking into trouble", or otherwise perhaps wondering what all the fuss was about?
I appreciate that you live in SF, so have first hand knowledge, it's just that your post is enough to put me off visiting somewhere I though was pretty cool. Times and places change. Does "fairly unsafe" mean a probability of getting attacked, mugged, or ?

I live in San Francisco three months a year (we had lived there for close to ten years in the 1970s and 1980s) and rely exclusively on MUNI during that time(we don’t have a car). A Senior monthly MUNI pass on your CLIPPER card costs $40. and it gives you unlimited rides - including cable cars - for the calender month. You can’t beat it. My wife and I and have never experienced any problems in any neighborhood in the nine years of our annual pilgrimages. Yes, the Tenderloin is dicey and you should have your antennae up but that’s true of any big city. Don’t believe everything you read about San Francisco- it’s still a magical city.

 

[MARC Rider]

If I have luggage, and it's late, I'll just find a taxi or call and Uber/Lyft to get me to where I'm staying. I'll only take transit in cases where the system is accessible, so I don't have to fuss with carrying around bags. In my experience, the best cities for using transit right off of Amtrak are

• Washington - Accessible metro, if the escalators are working ))
• New York (Not all subway stations are accessible) Lots of hotels within walking distance
• Philadelphia (not all subway trains are accessible, Free SEPTA trains to Center City for Amtrak riders.)
• Boston (Not all subway stations are accessible, some Green Line cars still have steps), hotels within walking distance. Good access to T from North Station.
• Chicago -- terrible connection to the Blue Line at *******, requires climbing stairs, short walk to Quincy L station, which has elevators. Bus station across the street, lots of hotels in walking distance
• Seattle - Take the elevator in the station to the upper level to get to Jackson St., then it's only a block to the International District light rail stop or the streetcar. Otherwise you'll be hauling your bag out of the way and up a hill.
• San Fransisco -- it's a 500-meter walk from the Salesforce transit center where the Emeryville bus discharges you to the Embarcadero BART/Muni station.
• San Diego -- Streetcar service right at the station.

Other than those, most cities only have local transit bus connections at the station, and their schedules may not always be the best for connecting to a train that arrives in odd hours even if the system is usable otherwise. Taxis/Uber/Lyft are your friends.

As for taxis, the worst place (considering the busy station) is Albany. If you don't rush right out of the train and up to the front, you will find all of the taxis are gone. Then you call a rideshare and find that Uber and Lyft drivers seem to be in short supply, which means you might have a 10 minute or more wait. I've had good luck with taxis in Savannah and Miami (you need a taxi in Miami), and Baltimore has a dedicated taxi line, plus lots of Uber/Lyft.

 

[Bob Dylan]

If I have luggage, and it's late, I'll just find a taxi or call and Uber/Lyft to get me to where I'm staying. I'll only take transit in cases where the system is accessible, so I don't have to fuss with carrying around bags. In my experience, the best cities for using transit right off of Amtrak are

• Washington - Accessible metro, if the escalators are working ))
• New York (Not all subway stations are accessible) Lots of hotels within walking distance
• Philadelphia (not all subway trains are accessible, Free SEPTA trains to Center City for Amtrak riders.)
• Boston (Not all subway stations are accessible, some Green Line cars still have steps), hotels within walking distance. Good access to T from North Station.
• Chicago -- terrible connection to the Blue Line at *******, requires climbing stairs, short walk to Quincy L station, which has elevators. Bus station across the street, lots of hotels in walking distance
• Seattle - Take the elevator in the station to the upper level to get to Jackson St., then it's only a block to the International District light rail stop or the streetcar. Otherwise you'll be hauling your bag out of the way and up a hill.
• San Fransisco -- it's a 500-meter walk from the Salesforce transit center where the Emeryville bus discharges you to the Embarcadero BART/Muni station.
• San Diego -- Streetcar service right at the station.

Other than those, most cities only have local transit bus connections at the station, and their schedules may not always be the best for connecting to a train that arrives in odd hours even if the system is usable otherwise. Taxis/Uber/Lyft are your friends.

As for taxis, the worst place (considering the busy station) is Albany. If you don't rush right out of the train and up to the front, you will find all of the taxis are gone. Then you call a rideshare and find that Uber and Lyft drivers seem to be in short supply, which means you might have a 10 minute or more wait. I've had good luck with taxis in Savannah and Miami (you need a taxi in Miami), and Baltimore has a dedicated taxi line, plus lots of Uber/Lyft.

I'll add Dallas and Ft Worth as Stations that have easy access to Public Transportation( Rail,Bus and Ride Share).

They've come a long way!

 

[allanorn]

As a tourist, I have always enjoyed my time in San Francisco, and felt sad to read your post above. Folk have different levels of comfort, especially overseas visitors, which can lead to us either naively "walking into trouble", or otherwise perhaps wondering what all the fuss was about?
I appreciate that you live in SF, so have first hand knowledge, it's just that your post is enough to put me off visiting somewhere I though was pretty cool. Times and places change. Does "fairly unsafe" mean a probability of getting attacked, mugged, or ?

I used to live north of SF about twenty years ago and I used to frequently visit the area once I moved to San Diego. My last visit was 2022. It's changed quite a bit. The tech industry created a "haves vs. have-nots" bifurcation, even if the city was expensive to begin with. My joke is that you should buy property there before the United Federation of Planets chooses SF as its headquarters.

I wouldn't agree with the majority of the doom-and-gloom reports about the city from national media, but there are signs. Market Street and the Embarcadero used to be fairly calm places to walk, if busy during the day. Now it has way more street vending from people trying to ensure they can survive there. The Westfield mall on Market Street closed recently, as have a lot of shops around Union Square that have been around for quite a while - citing either low sales, high theft, or both. I noticed quite a bit more begging and panhandling than in previous times. Pier 39 and the Wharf has always had its share of that and I don't think it's changed as much as the area around Market St, probably because Market/FiDi was always a business district with lots of people heading to and from offices pre-pandemic. Local parks and streets may have more unhoused than they used to, even outside of the normal tourist areas.

The Tenderloin district has always been sketchy even in daytime, due to lots of drug use and homeless/unhoused people. I remember walking in and out of the BART station at Civic Plaza/UN Center (so 8th and Market) and it was always more touch-and-go than in previous times; the Hilton there roughly marks the SE corner of where I'd say the Tenderloin starts. Odds are still in one's favor to not have any issues, but that's not an area I'd want to spend a lot of time in as a tourist.

I still think SF is a place to visit, but expectations probably need to be tempered if your last memories are from a decade or more ago.

 

[jis]

Newark Penn Station has PATH to Jersey City and New York, LRT to Newark Downtown locations and Newark Broad Street (NJT) station, and an extensive bus network to all parts of NJ and to Newark International Airport, in addition to train service to EWR.

Trenton has extensive bus network and DLRT to Camden with many stops along the east shore of Delaware River, including at Bordentown the site of one of the earliest railroads (Camden and Amboy) in the US and Roebling, adjacent to the area where all the cables used in the Brooklyn Bridge were manufactured and assembled.

 

[joelkfla]

Boston (Not all subway stations are accessible, some Green Line cars still have steps), hotels within walking distance. Good access to T from North Station.

MBTA has promised to have at least one low-floor entry car on every Green Line train. However, the low-floor section of the car is rather small, and can get crowded at peak times.

 

[MARC Rider]

I'll add Dallas and Ft Worth as Stations that have easy access to Public Transportation( Rail,Bus and Ride Share).

They've come a long way!

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

 

[allanorn]

I'll add Dallas and Ft Worth as Stations that have easy access to Public Transportation( Rail,Bus and Ride Share).

They've come a long way!

St. Louis isn't bad either with Metro (light rail) and a major transit center being right outside of the station.

Los Angeles, San Jose, and Portland, Oregon (PDX) have good to very good transit connectivity next to or within the Amtrak stations. Denver has apparently improved but I haven't taken the CZ yet.