Why Coast Starlight does not stop at Oakland Coliseum?

[Shawn Ryu]

...Not stop at Oakland Coliseum instead of Jack London Square? I reason that stopping at Coliseum would provide better connection to BART, which would mean much easier way to reach San Francisco.

Or does it not matter because of timing in which the train arrives in Oakland?

 

[TiBike]

I don't think Amtrak's long distance management cares about BART connectivity for the Starlight. If they did, they would have kept Richmond on the line. According to others on this board, the reason Richmond was dropped was because chronically late northbound trains would arrive after the joint BART/Amtrak station was closed, necessitating expensive taxi rides for passengers. If Amtrak cared about BART, it would be a no-brainer to keep Richmond on the line for southbound trains – the morning arrival isn't a problem and it would be a seamless transfer to pretty much any destination in the Bay Area (factoring in a transfer to Caltrain at Millbrae).

The Coliseum station is not an ideal transfer point for BART, particularly at night. It's a rough neighborhood, and public transit facilities have effectively become homeless shelters in the Bay Area. It's also a hike from the Capitol Corridor station to BART. It's fine if you know what you're doing and you're used to navigating Bay Area public transit, but if you tell the proverbial Little Old Lady from Pasadena that all she has to do to get to, say, San Bruno is hop on BART at the Coliseum, it would not end well. It would be a safer bet to tell her to get off at Jack London Square, hit the bars and see if she can get lucky .

 

[dogbert617]

I don't think Amtrak's long distance management cares about BART connectivity for the Starlight. If they did, they would have kept Richmond on the line. According to others on this board, the reason Richmond was dropped was because chronically late northbound trains would arrive after the joint BART/Amtrak station was closed, necessitating expensive taxi rides for passengers. If Amtrak cared about BART, it would be a no-brainer to keep Richmond on the line for southbound trains – the morning arrival isn't a problem and it would be a seamless transfer to pretty much any destination in the Bay Area (factoring in a transfer to Caltrain at Millbrae).

The Coliseum station is not an ideal transfer point for BART, particularly at night. It's a rough neighborhood, and public transit facilities have effectively become homeless shelters in the Bay Area. It's also a hike from the Capitol Corridor station to BART. It's fine if you know what you're doing and you're used to navigating Bay Area public transit, but if you tell the proverbial Little Old Lady from Pasadena that all she has to do to get to, say, San Bruno is hop on BART at the Coliseum, it would not end well. It would be a safer bet to tell her to get off at Jack London Square, hit the bars and see if she can get lucky .

What he/she said. The issues of safety around the Coliseum BART station, and the fact that every so often that northbound #14 would arrive so late after the end of BART service, is why I doubt it'll ever occur. A la the discussion that occurred on another thread(IIRC, it was about cities and towns where you are surprised Amtrak doesn't have a station at), about why Richmond, CA was eliminated as a Coast Starlight station.

 

[SubwayNut]

The Coast Starlight also uses different tracks between just south of the Oakland Coleseum Station and just north of the Fremont station. This more western track used by the Coast Starlight rejoins the main Capitol Corridor line before it looks like there the right switches to get trains onto the easternmost track to stop at OAC.

 

[Trogdor]

On top of the reasons given by others, Coliseum also has nothing but a platform, whereas Jack London Square has a full station with agents and interior facilities; something you’d be more likely to want for a long-distance train.

 

[sttom]

What would be worth more, connecting with BART which stops around midnight or being in a reasonably safe area near downtown and housing? The answer is easily being in the more trafficked location. Of the Starlight ran twice a day on a 12 offset, it might make sense to try to have a connection with BART, but Richmond station would be far more convenient. There is at least a shared station vs a train platform and an overhead walkway (that isn't ADA compliant) from BART.

 

[seat38a]

Also the Amtrak maintenance and train yard is like right around the corner from Jack London and Emeryville. I've seen them load food and supplies onto the dining car while stopped at Jack London which I'm guessing comes from somewhere at the yard and also bunch of people who look like maintenance people working on the train. Not so easy to do at the Coliseum.

You can see show close it is here: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Amt...9c33c!2m2!1d-122.2930033!2d37.8013423!1m0!3e2

Not sure by rail, but walking its like 1.5 miles away. Also, with all the thruway bus connections, I don't think BART connectivity is high on Amtrak's mind.

 

[TiBike]

I don't think there's any question about replacing Jack London with Coliseum. Stopping at Coliseum to let people off to get BART is nice in theory, but isn't going to work at 9pm, let alone whatever time the northbound Starlight actually arrives. If you're going to stop at a southbound BART transfer point in the morning, it makes more sense to do it at Richmond.

 

[TinCan782]

IIRC, Richmond was a stop on the CS a few years ago but, was eliminated rather quickly. I believe low usage in combination with safety concerns with the time of day were cited.

 

[flitcraft]

Not long ago, I ended up taking the wrong BART train (distracted by having to wrangle some kids) and we had to backtrack by getting out at the Coliseum stop and reversing course. It was mid-afternoon, so I didn't feel particularly threatened, but I did note that the electronic boards had information warning about cellphone theft and how to report it. That was a first for me...

 

[Asher]

...Not stop at Oakland Coliseum instead of Jack London Square? I reason that stopping at Coliseum would provide better connection to BART, which would mean much easier way to reach San Francisco.

Or does it not matter because of timing in which the train arrives in Oakland?

It's a great stop if you was going to a Raider football or Athletic base ball game. When the game is over, it's time to go!

 

[TiBike]

It's great for getting to Oakland airport too, now that the connector train is running. When it was the "Amelia AirBart" bus, it was more of an adventure. So long as you're on the track side of the pay gates at Coliseum BART, it's fine. The Capitol Corridor station isn't so lucky.

 

[Seaboard92]

I was going to say the time I flew from Oakland and took the Capitol Corridor there it was fairly sketchy.

I probably had fifteen panhandlers come up to me begging for money. But once in the bart platform and more specifically the airport platform I felt safer.