Emeryville/San Francisco CZ to CS transfer questions

[LB]

I will be taking full advantage of a one zone award by going Denver-Emeryville on the Zephyr, then after an overnight layover in the bay area before taking the Coast Starlight down to LA. I'll be traveling with others, but they are actually going to be staying in San Francisco for sightseeing and skipping the last leg to Los Angeles. As a result we've already secured a hotel room in San Francisco. So I have a few questions:

1) Can we take the through way bus into San Francisco upon our afternoon arrival in Emeryville, even if our tickets are for a stop/layover in Emeryville? Is there a way to separately purchase the bus if a ticket is required? (and any idea how much?)

2) Since I'll be overnighting in San Francisco, it would seem easier to go to Oakland to board the Coast Starlight in the morning (seems to be relatively close to BART and where the throughway bus drops off), even though my ticket technically is from Emeryville. Would I have any problems trying to check luggage and board there even if it is not really my origin station?

 

[BCL]

Sounds like you managed to persuade someone to book an unpublished route as well as an overnight. The Denver-LA routes I see all include a long bus segment or two. The main ones involve a transfer in Sacramento.

I don't believe you're going to be able to add a bus. At this point you'd be modifying your existing trip after the zone systems has been removed.

There are ways to get into San Francisco. The AC Transit F bus has a stop near the Emeryville station. You could also take Emery-Go-Round (free) to the Macarthur BART station and then BART to San Francisco. Or alternatively you could get off at Richmond (the station is shared with BART) and then take BART to San Francisco.

http://www.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?quick_line=F&Go=Go

Of course the Amtrak California bus is the most convenient way. There is a trick to buying a ticket just for the bus. The only requirement is that a train segment must be booked with the bus. The route itself doesn't even have to make sense. Then you could throw away the train segment. However, you'll probably want to do it as a multi-city trip to make it possible to directly book the bus (5005) attached to the California Zephyr and select your San Francisco stop of choice. Or you could just pick any random bus. You could also book the bus for the next morning.

Here's an example that I could get up:

Berkeley-Emeryville (541) - this would be your throwaway segment.

Emeryville-San Francisco [sFC] (5005) - you would take this to get to San Francisco.

The total is $10.50 before any discounts.

The problem with the bus to connect with the Coast Starlight is that it connects in Oakland and not Emeryville, although it might be possible to board there anyways. You might also need to book it separately (I couldn't attach the 5011 bus to the other two segments although other buses to Emeryville were fine to attach). It was $16 (before discount) for BKY-EMY/EMY-SFC/SFC-EMY.

 

[lb]

Sounds like you managed to persuade someone to book an unpublished route as well as an overnight. The Denver-LA routes I see all include a long bus segment or two. The main ones involve a transfer in Sacramento.

Yes- I had to direct the phone rep the the amtrak website where it gives this specific route (DEN to LA via CZ and CS) as a valid route for a sleeper passenger, and to the rule that a less then 24 hr layover is still one trip. Once they were educated on their own rules, booking it went fine.

Thanks for the tips on the buses. It looks like uber/taxi might be easiest on the way into San Francisco since there will be a few of us and a few bags. Going back out in the morning will just be me, so maybe BART/Emery-Go-Round to Emeryville.

 

[the_traveler]

As mentioned, you could book the Berkley to SF trip as above, and separately SF to Berkley trip, and "throwaway" (do not take) the Berkley-EMY and EMY-Berkley segments. This way you can take the Amtrak bus!

 

[BCL]

Thanks for the tips on the buses. It looks like uber/taxi might be easiest on the way into San Francisco since there will be a few of us and a few bags. Going back out in the morning will just be me, so maybe BART/Emery-Go-Round to Emeryville.

They're not going to add the buses to your reservation. It would be considered unnecessary to make your point to point trip.

The bus would be the most convenient way. Like I said, the bus connection to the southbound Coast Starlight is 5011, and it only connects in Oakland (Jack London Square). I suppose they built a station and have bus bays, so Amtrak prefers to spread around the use of their facilities.

I don't know about Uber though. It may depend on how many bags you have and what vehicle arrives. The bus will have tons of room in the baggage hold.