San Francisco arrival to Oakland train

[calliopecruiser]

Or Emeryville train - either is possible.

 

I've never ended a cruise in  San Francisco, so I don't know what options are realistic........Given the early arrival on a weekday, does anyone have experience in the best way to get across the bay to Oakland or Berkeley?  A cab is straightforward, but I don't know if it's the best (or only?) option, since I expect traffic to be wicked.  I am planning to get the Amtrak Coast Starlight for a trip up to Olympia. 

[CruiserBruce]

Cab. Uber/Lyft. Amtrak bus...its a ways away, tho. 

 

You want to go to Emeryville. Going from SF to Emeryville in the morning shouldn't be very crowded...that is counter traffic.

[calliopecruiser]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

Going from SF to Emeryville in the morning shouldn't be very crowded...that is counter traffic.

Good to know, thanks.

[Urban trekker]

Amtrak uses  a bus from near the Ferry terminal over to Emeryville to connect with the Coast Starlighter.

When booking your ticket - your starting point is San Francisco and not Emeryville - that way it shows the connecting bus.

So book it as San Francisco to Olympic Washington.

Hope this helps.

Dennis

[GTJ]

1 hour ago, Urban trekker said:

Amtrak uses  a bus from near the Ferry terminal over to Emeryville to connect with the Coast Starlight. When booking your ticket - your starting point is San Francisco and not Emeryville - that way it shows the connecting bus. So book it as San Francisco to Olympic Washington.

Generally, that is the manner in which the Amtrak ticket would be booked. The problem here is that the cruise vessel will be arriving early in the morning, but the Coast Starlight will not be departing northbound late in the evening, and the question is: where to pass the intervening time and leave the baggage? If spent in San Francisco, then get the Amtrak-arranged bus at 555 Mission Street, between First Street and Second Street, in front of Chase Manhattan bank and near the Salesforce transit center. Caution: No station, no shelter, no baggage checking . . . nothing but a street curb. On the other hand, it might be more pleasurable spending the day in Berkeley or elsewhere in the East Bay.

 

Without baggage, get the AC Transit "F" bus from the Salesforce transit center direct to several stops all around the university campus. Or get the BART subway train along Market Street to the downtown Berkeley station. At the end of the day, get the AC Transit "7" bus at any of several stops on Shattuck Avenue, Durant Avenue, or College Avenue direct to the Emeryville Amtrak station. There are also many other places where one could spend the day, in Oakland, Alameda, Piedmont, or other locations near Emeryville.

 

With baggage, first head from San Francisco to Emeryville and drop off baggage at the Amtrak station before spending the day in the East Bay. Get the AC Transit "F" bus from the Salesforce transit center and alight at the first stop, on Christie Avenue immediately south of Powell Street. It is a short walk to the Amtrak station (go north on Christie Street one block past Powell Street to Shellmound Way, turn right and go one block east to Shellmound Street, turn left and go one block to the Public Market parking lot and pedestrian overpass to the station). After dropping off baggage, use the AC Transit "7" bus from the station to Berkeley, the "29" bus from Hollis Street to downtown Oakland, the "57" bus on Christie Street to Grand-Lake Oakland.

 

Check the AC Transit bus map for ideas on other places to possibly visit (the idea of heading to Fenton's, on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, for ice cream, is now on my mind; stopping at Ratto's, a deli and international grocer on Washington Street at Ninth Street in downtown Oakland, is always interesting; though I will always be drawn to Berkeley, where I earned my undergraduate degree and resided on the south side,off Telegraph Avenue, and the eclectic surrounding blocks).

[disneyochem]

It’s pretty easy to get from the cruise port to Emeryville.  We take the train home after every SF cruise.  Takes about 20-30 minutes regardless of whether it’s a weekday or not.  
 

We take both taxis and Ubers across the Bay depending on when we get off the ship—prices seem to be about the same.  If we get off early (we’re self-assist), we normally just nabbed a taxi from the taxi stand right outside the terminal—always check though to be sure they’ll go to Emeryville!  Later in the morning, we’ve found it quicker to just use an Uber.

 

As an earlier poster noted, the Coast Starlight doesn’t arrive in Emeryville until late in the evening.  When you want to store your luggage and spend your time will probably depend on when you head to Emeryville.  You can store your luggage at the Amtrak station—they charge $10 a bag.  I would call just to make sure they still do (it’s been awhile since I’ve used this service).  So you could get to Emeryville, store your luggage and then explore the area—go back into the City?
 

You could also store your luggage in SF, explore and then go to Emeryville.  That trip might take longer on a weekday since then you will be traveling with commuters.

 

Enjoy the train ride! We’ve taken the route a number of times and love it.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by disneyochem

[GTJ]

6 hours ago, disneyochem said:

You could also store your luggage in SF, explore and then go to Emeryville.

Years ago Amtrak maintained a real station within the East Bay (Transbay) Terminal in San Francisco. On the lower level, in the back, Amtrak was next to the Trailways station. With ticket agent and baggage checking (or leave hand baggage there for a fee), inside waiting area, bus boarding in back on Natoma Street. There had been issues with transients in the Amtrak-Trailways station at the terminal, but what exists now is more disgraceful as Amtrak passengers are so mistreated in San Francisco. No facilities provided for passengers or their baggage. Thus, the conundrum of what to do with one's baggage where the train is not scheduled to depart until late evening. Absent going back-and-forth across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, one needs baggage storage in San Francisco to spend the day in the City (but I don't know of any baggage storage service convenient to Amtrak's San Francisco bus stop location), or else store baggage in Emeryville and spend the day in the East Bay.

[calliopecruiser]

Thank you all.  I have already checked, and the Emeryville station does store bags for the day....My intention was to go the Amtrak station directly, leave my bags, and then spend time somewhere on that side of the bay - the botanical gardens in Berkeley look enticing. 

[oakridger]

@calliopecruiser that's a good plan.  Please make it simple and take a taxi or Uber/Lyft.  I can't fathom why @GTJ is suggesting the convoluted bus idea!  Have a good cruise and train trip!

 

P.S.- Do you have any plans to go on Crystal again?  I remember you from that forum pre pandemic!  I would consider it, but have myself booked up into 2025 already with other trips!

 

~Nancy

[GTJ]

10 hours ago, calliopecruiser said:

My intention was to go the Amtrak station directly, leave my bags, and then spend time somewhere on that side of the bay - the botanical gardens in Berkeley look enticing. 

When I was in university, my dormitory was at the foot of the road leading to the botanical gardens, just under one mile distant. It is a pleasant visit, but it will not fill a full day . . . perhaps an hour or two. A bit further up the hill is the Lawrence Hall of Science, also good for an hour or two. The campus bus service, Bear Transit, will take you to both places. There is much to see on the main campus as well (and if you like libraries the campus is wonderful, both the main Doe library and all the specialized libraries in the various academic buildings), and the shopping and other sights of Telegraph Avenue, on the south side of campus going as far as Dwight Way, is very much worth seeing. Also see Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue for a block or two east from Telegraph Avenue. (There's a complementary street on the north side of Campus, Euclid Avenue, but much less busy.) The city center, along Shattuck Avenue between Dwight Way and University Avenue is good to see, though less eclectic than Telegraph Avenue. A few blocks north on Shattuck Avenue is the well-known restaurant, Chez Panisse. You could spend the whole day in Berkeley, but if that does not fill your day then other interesting areas not far from Berkeley is the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland, along College Avenue from Claremont Avenue to Broadway, and also Piedmont Avenue, from MacArthur Boulevard to Pleasant Valley Avenue.

 

21 minutes ago, oakridger said:

Please make it simple and take a taxi or Uber/Lyft. I can't fathom why @GTJ is suggesting the convoluted bus idea!

Actually, the bus service is reasonably direct and not at all convoluted. AC Transit provides very good transit bus service in this area, among the best in all of the United States. As an undergraduate I would regularly travel on the 51 along College Avenue, the 40 (now route 6) on Telegraph Avenue, and the F to and from San Francisco, as well as the on-campus bus service and the BART rapid transit service. (After having moved out of the dormitory and living off campus on Haste Street, corner of Telegraph Avenue, the former 65, since discontinued, would stop in front of my apartment building, and which I would also regularly use to BART to commute to my paid fellowship.) Using hired cars makes little sense if traveling within the urbanized area--unless one has money to burn--though it could be useful if heading into the hills, such as Tilden Regional Park, where the transit bus coverage is not so great. But with the real attraction being the university and the surrounding streets, use of the bus and walking is the best means of seeing this part of the East Bay.

[calliopecruiser]

On 12/1/2023 at 5:41 AM, oakridger said:

P.S.- Do you have any plans to go on Crystal again?

I'm booked on Crystal for an Athens to Mumbai cruise at the end of 2024.  It's a month long, and that might be too long, but the price was too good to pass up for Crystal.  I have friends who are on Crystal next month, and I hope to hear good reviews.