OKJ at night?

[TransitGeek]

I'm booked on the Coast Starlight heading up to the Bay Area for the holidays, getting off at Oakland's Jack London Square station. My plan was to walk from there to the Lake Merritt BART station (and head for Castro Valley), but I'm concerned for a few reasons.

1- Oakland doesn't have a fantastic reputation for safety, and the area around OKJ doesn't look (from Google Earth/Street View) terribly appetizing. The CS is scheduled in around 9 at night. Am I going to be safe walking around there?

2- The CS doesn't have a great reputation for on-time performance. Amtrak's web site puts it at ~35% in October 2008. If 9pm isn't pleasant, what will 10/11/midnight/1am look like? Not to mention that BART stops running at 1.

So my options are a) do like I planned, walk the four or so blocks to Lake Merrit, B) take the AC Transit 72 into downtown Oakland and get a BART train at 19th street, which means less time on the street but I have to change trains to get to Castro Valley, or c) beg a family member to pick my wife and I up, which I don't want to do because most of my family is grumpy after 9pm.

If there's anyone who's seen OKJ at night around, what do you think?

 

[Shawn]

The CS has been running pretty much ontime lately. Watch, I will jinx it.

If you were going to be in the "Jack London Square" area, it isn't too bad, but once you get down by the Amtrak station and that end of town, I wouldn't go walking at night. Last time I was waiting for the CS, I watched a nice fight across from Amtrak and the cops had to break it up. Not to mention, there is a large homelss population that hangs out around the station, not to mention, the drug taking in the bathrooms! haha

I would take a cab wherever you are going in Oakland. Those are all over the place.

Just my thoughts.

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

In July 2007 I stayed at the Jack London In for a couple of nights for the NORCAL Rail Fest a number of people expressed concern for safety in the area. Well my reaction was absolutey no concern during the day or night by the inn to the Bay ferries. During the Day I also would not worry about the station. But quickly the area heading away from the Bay towards the Bart station gets scary fast. I was told the station was 4 blocks but I think it was actually 12. My trip to the BART was around 10:00 AM I would never go that way at night. I felt safer walking in Harlem when I was 16, than I did heading to the BART station. I would still stay at the Square and use the Bay ferry if I return to the Area again.

From your description, it sounded like you are going into SF, so why not book the bus as part of your ticket, as the Amtrak buses meet the train no matter when the Starlight arrives. All four of my trips to that ares the Starlight was 2 to 6 hours late.

Anyway don't walk away from the Bay area to the Bart system at night.

 

[George Harris]

Have you considered getting off at San Jose? From there you can take the VTA bus 180 to Fremont BART station. You will still have to make a BART train change, but it is well announced. In the evenings the bus leaves San Jose at its stop nearest the station at about 3 minutes past the hour and takes 50 minutes more or less to Fremont BART. The last northbound BART train out of Fremont is probably about 11:30 pm (I have not checked.) That means that the CS will have to get you to San Jose in time to make the 10:03 bus, that is train less than 90 minutes late. So long as you make that bus, the train out to Castro Valley should be no problem.

Suggest you check the BART and VTA web sites to finagle out your schedule.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Have you considered getting off at San Jose? From there you can take the VTA bus 180 to Fremont BART station. You will still have to make a BART train change, but it is well announced. In the evenings the bus leaves San Jose at its stop nearest the station at about 3 minutes past the hour and takes 50 minutes more or less to Fremont BART. The last northbound BART train out of Fremont is probably about 11:30 pm (I have not checked.) That means that the CS will have to get you to San Jose in time to make the 10:03 bus, that is train less than 90 minutes late. So long as you make that bus, the train out to Castro Valley should be no problem.
Suggest you check the BART and VTA web sites to finagle out your schedule.

George is onto something.

Depending upon your destination*EDIT* Now I see Castro Valley

An emergency backup option from San Jose would be to hop off at San Jose (Diridion) and get CalTrain to the Millbrae Station and get BART from there. The last Caltrain is 1030pm on Weekdays and Saturdays, and there's a 930pm train on Weekdays too. These would get you to Millbrae in sufficient time for the last pair of BARTs at 1137pm and 1150pm which do go directly to CV, but taking a world tour to get there.

 

[tp49]

I've walked the opposite from Lake Merrit BART to OKJ at night many times (upwards of as late as midnight.) It's a fairly quick walk down Oak Street to 2nd Street. From OKJ just go out of the station turn right on to 2d Street and walk to the end of the street (the end of 2d is Oak) do not cross Oak. Turn left and walk up 6 blocks. Lake Merritt will be on the left side.

The worst area of the walk is between the Nimitz Freeway (I-880) and Lake Merritt and really only the block between 6th and 7th Streets. The Jack London Square area (south of 880) is one of the safest areas in Oakland. Otherwise it's fine just use common sense. I was notorious for running late and missing the last train on the weekend out of FMT so I would sometimes catch it at OKJ or just ride to OKJ and take the Starlight back from the East Bay.

Now the Oakland Colisseum station on the other hand...

 

[p&sr]

I'm booked on the Coast Starlight heading up to the Bay Area for the holidays, getting off at Oakland's Jack London Square station. My plan was to walk from there to the Lake Merritt BART station (and head for Castro Valley), but I'm concerned for a few reasons.
If there's anyone who's seen OKJ at night around, what do you think?

I walked OKJ to Lake Merritt BART once in broad daylight. I never want to again. Instead, I'd walk through Jack London Square to Broadway, then up Broadway to the BART Station at 12th St. This goes just fine by daylight.

But at night, I would STRICTLY avoid both walks. Either take the Amtrak Bus to San Francisco (catch BART there at Embarcadero or Powell) , or take a cab from OKJ to BART. Even there, I'd use Oakland 12th St rather than Lake Merritt.

Good luck!

 

[TransitGeek]

Thanks for all the replies. I was thinking about the Diridon Station option... I took VTA 180 to get from SJC airport up to Hayward last September.

However, I've already booked the tickets through to OKJ.

Is it a problem to just get off the train in San Jose? This is, as I've said, my first real long-distance trip.