San Francisco and Easter on the Coast Starlight...

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The last few days, I've been on a bit of a little trip to San Francisco and back via Amtrak. I didn't end up doing a trip log for the first part of the trip, as I was a bit exhausted through that part of the journey, so Ill give a bit of a summary before I start the return trip.

Anyway, to get to San Francisco, I travelled via the overnight bus departing San Diego at 10:15pm last Wednesday night along with the connecting San Joaquin at Bakersfield and bus from Emeryville. On Wednesday morning, I pre-checked a piece of luggage to the Ferry Building, as the late bus has no checked baggage and I wanted to go directly to the bus without having to go home first (I was a bit busy after work). Nice that you can do that!

The bus left on schedule, and I quickly settled in to a seat towards the back that for some strange reason had much more legroom than the seats further towards the front. Strange, but I wasn't complaining! At that point, I tried to sleep, and I actually was able to somewhat - though I recall waking up around Fullerton and LAUS. Eventually, we made it to Bakersfield at around 4:20am - at which point train #711 was already pulled into the station. After waiting a bit, we quickly boarded, and I was surprised to find no Superliner in the consist. Ended up in a normal California Car, and it wasn't the greatest sleep experience - no seat recline or foot rest at all! I did at least have the seat next to me empty the entire trip, but I didn't know it would be that way - and as such only started using it to rest when it remained empty after around Fresno.

After some on and off sleeping on the train, I eventually woke up for good around Stockton, and got some breakfast from the cafe car. It (like the other cafe cars I've seen on the SJ) used a CCC, which I found interesting (and better than the standard Surfliner cafe car given the nice seating). Found that they gave me one free refill on the coffee, which I've never had before on Amtrak. Anyway, the trip was otherwise uneventful, and we arrived in Emeryville just a little behind schedule. At EMY, we found the bus connection to San Francisco waiting - the ride over the Bay Bridge was nice, and we arrived at the Ferry Building around 11:30am.
 
In San Francisco -

Went into the station (which must be the only staffed Amtrak station without any trains!) to claim my luggage, and walked around the Ferry Building Marketplace (which really has a nice smell to it). Ended up getting lunch and filling my Clipper card (the Bay Area transit smart card) with a 3-day Muni pass and $25 in credit to use on Caltrain and BART. Nice that you can put all that on one card! After a while, I went down to my hotel (Sir Francis Drake Hotel)l on Powell St - and as it wasn't quite time for checkin (I could have checked in, but the only room available was on the 20th floor under the bar/nightclub...), I checked my bag in the hotel and rode the cable car which stopped outside the hotel. There was a line for it, but eventually I got on and got down to Fisherman's Wharf. Ended up taking the F streetcar back to the Union Square area (quite a wait for that as well - I guess tourists tend to flock to these like the cable cars...) At that point, I was able to check into the hotel - at which point I took a much-needed shower and prepared for my Caltrain excursion to San Jose to see the Red Wings-Sharks hockey game.

To get to Caltrain, I ended up taking one of the many Muni buses in the area (the 30 Stockton) to the depot at 4th and King. That wasn't near as crowded as the cable cars or the F line - it seems tourists don't use the buses nearly as much as those! The bus felt a bit old (as most Muni buses do), but was functional - and was powered via an overhead electric wire. Got to the station shortly after 5pm, and ended up deciding to get a coffee for the trip at a Panera down the street and catch the 5:33 Bullet (express) train to San Jose rather than the 5:14 (the game didn't start until 7:30 anyway). Got back to the station shortly before departure, and found they had gates with lines for each departure - nice that they make it easy to see where you have to go! Tapped my Clipper Card on the reader, got on the train, and was soon on my way. Caltrain was a bit of a nice ride - the equipment we had was actually identical to that I had seen on Metra on one of my Chicago trips before I moved out West (single seats on top), and I enjoyed the fast ride down the Peninsula (passing many stations along the way - they must feel left out...) Arrived at San Jose Diridon station (the same station used by Amtrak) basically on time, and quickly walked across the street to the HP Pavilion arena - even closer than Honda Center is to ANA!

The game was a little disappointing (Sharks beat the Red Wings 2-0), but it was at least fun to go to - the arena was nice, and I got to experience a ride on Caltrain. Not being 100% familiar with the arena exits, Was a bit worried that 15 minutes would be too little time to make the northbound Caltrain (they hold it that long after the game...) - though I did find that there were buses to Fremont BART and up the Peninsula I could take in that case, so I wouldn't exactly be doomed to a $150 cab ride if I missed it. In any case, the game ended slightly after 10, and I made the train easily (with 20min to spare) - I guess 15min is perfectly reasonable after all... The ride back was an all-stops local (as opposed to the express I took to the game) - which is understandable given the need to transport everybody northbound, but a bit annoying nevertheless. Made it to back to 4th & King shortly after midnight, where I got on another Muni bus back to my hotel.
 
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2nd and 3rd days-

Day 2 and 3 of my trip were perhaps not as enjoyable as they could be, since I was feeling a bit under the weather. I did end up doing a few things - most notably a minor-league hockey game at the Cow Palace (yes, the Cow Palace...) Ended up taking Muni there and A shuttle bus+BART back - this being the only time I used BART on the trip. Yesterday, I ended up taking the N Judah Muni line to Ocean Beach and back - this being one of the Muni Metro light-rail lines. In my experience, this seemed quite different from the San Diego Trolley despite both being light rail lines - while the Trolley runs on mostly dedicated right-of-way and has full stations for every stop, Muni Metro runs mostly in the middle of the street, stopping with traffic, and with many stops consisting only of a simple shelter. Kind of like a bus on rails. I should also note that San Francisco had some interesting architecture - was pretty neat passing by all the old houses and buildings on the Muni Metro and cable cars - particularly on San Francisco's famous hills! SF seems like a nice place for a future West Coast Gathering - lots of interesting trains, trolleys, and cable cars to ride, plenty to do, and very transit-accessible. Certainly not cheap, but deals can be found - I used Priceline for my hotel. Granted, it does lack an Amtrak train station - though it does have Amtrak service (and you can always take Caltrain from San Jose if you will absolutely will not ride a bus...

Anyway, I ended up going to bed around 12:30 last night, and set my alarm for 6:30 to catch the 7:05 bus from the stop near Union Square to Oakland Jack London Square. Managed to get down to Market Street and saw an Amtrak California bus stopped at my stop - only to see it pull away before I could cross the street! Being as it was 6:58, I feared the driver decided I was a no-show and drove off early. Given that, I took a cab to the Ferry Building to sort things out, only to find out that was an earlier bus (scheduled to depart at 6:50). So I was OK - but the cab ride ended up being a bit of a waste. I did get a bit of time to walk through the Ferry Building Marketplace again (I will say it has quite a pleasant aroma...), get a coffee for the bus ride, and start writing this trip log.

Went back to the trainless station, and soon found myself heading to the curb to catch the bus over the Bay Bridge to Oakland. Our bus ended up being a generic white charter bus (as opposed to one with the Amtrak California logo), though there was a white printed sign on the window that said "AMTRAK". The driver got off and announced that this was bus 6011 to Oakland (and instructed Emeryville-bound California Zephyr passengers to take the bus behind him). The bus was pretty nice - having leather seats as opposed to those on the usual Ambuses - and our ride to OKJ was uneventful. The actual station in Oakland was nice - it has an interesting architectural design with a glass-enclosed roof. They made a couple announcements - first for the bus to Emeryville to catch the California Zephyr (which I swear they said went to the "east coast" - LOL!), and then finally for the Coast Starlight - for which they made note of all the station stops as well as the connecting Surfliner's station stops (ending with San Diego, my ultimate destination).
 
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Train #11 - OKJ to LAX

After the train arrived, I quickly found my way on board my sleeping car, stored my bags, and made my way to the dining car for breakfast, passing through the Pacific Parlour Car on the way. Had the French toast (my usual choice of the Amtrak breakfast items), and ended up sitting with two people headed to Oceanside - though instead of taking the Surfliner, they had ended up driving all the way to LAUS! They had heard the announcement at the station which had mentioned Oceanside as a destination and wondered about that, so I told them that it was via a connection to a Surfliner. One of them was actually from Tucson (and had flown into LA), so I ended up telling them about the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle (though the 3xweekly schedule may have made it difficult for them to take that...) I don't think this is the first time I've ran into people who have driven rather than take the train from a closer stop...

After breakfast, I returned to my sleeping car - unfortunately, my roomette isn't on the side to see the ocean. However, the PPC and SSL should come in handy for that... This time, there was no detour south of Oakland (hopefully Ill see you again next year, Tehachapi!) and we soon made it to San Jose, where we had a fairly extended stop (they announced that 100+ people were boarding here). This was at Diridon Station, which is the same station I had visited a few days prior when taking Caltrain. It seems I could have taken Caltrain down here to meet the Coast Starlight, though I probably would have missed out on breakfast had I done that. it would be nice if they would run a train up those tracks into SF directly, though - preferably an overnight train... After what seemed like a very long time, we finally left San Jose, with Salinas being our next stop. They made an announcement for lunch in the Parlour car, though given the limited options there (Mac and cheese and one other item I forget) I think I'll opt for the regular dining car. I do look forward to visiting the PPC, though - seems they will have a wine tasting upstairs and show a movie (Wreck-It Ralph) downstairs.
 
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After my last update, they came around to get lunch/dinner reservations - I ended up going with 11:45 and 4:30 (as that was the earliest I could do, and I want to enjoy as much of the ocean as possible from the PPC/SSL). Ended up having lunch with the same two people as at breakfast, as well as one additional person going to LA. Had the burger, a salad, and vanilla ice cream - it was good as usual. During lunch we stopped at Salinas - one of those smaller, older train depots. After that I returned to my roomette - only to find I had left my dinner reservation slip in the dining car! As such, I trekked back to the dining car (which given how bumpy the ride had become, was quite annoying), and returned - upon which one of the SCAs wanted to look at my ticket, thinking I wasn't in a sleeper. I told them I was, and eventually they found my stub which showed the sleeper. Definitely annoying - I haven't had that happen before, though Im guessing the fact that I'm doing a day trip in a sleeper must have thrown them off. Though I would think sleeper day trips would be pretty common on the Coast Starlight, particularly OKJ-LAX (heck, with two people at low bucket, that would probably be the same price as getting coach and buying meals...)

Anyway, I stayed in my room until they made the announcement for wine tasting, which I went to the PPC for. That was definitely enjoyable - they offered wines from a few of the cities in the Central Coast area we were stopping in (namely Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara). We went through SLO while I was in the PPC, passing by a prison and Cal Poly SLO before finally coming to the Amtrak station, which is served by a couple Surfliners each day in addition to the Coast Starlight. We were stopped here for a while, but at least we had Debbie in the PPC letting us finish off the remaining wine! After wine tasting was over, I went back to my room - though they were offering dinner in the PPC, I figured I'd stick with the more appealing (to me, at least) offerings in the standard dining car. In any case, I went to my room (this time, without any suspicious SCAs asking to see my ticket), and got a coffee. An announcement was made that we were some 50 min or so from seeing the ocean (which will happen when Im eating dinner..), and were passing Vandenberg Air Force Base. Kind of funny that both the detour and normal routes have a major Air Force base and prison along their routes... We have also been through some mountains/tunnels as well, which caught me by surprise as I did t know this was part of the regular CS route. Anyway, I will say that this has been a relaxing trip - definitely more so than the trip north via an overnight bus and 4:55am San Joaquin! Though that definitely served its purpose, which was to get me there earlier in the day...
 
I ended up going to dinner at 4:30, when I was seated with a couple who lived in the mountains near Sacramento and were on a trip down to Santa Barbara. It seems they had done quite a bit of train travel, including VIA's Canadian (During wine tasting, I had ran into a couple Canadians who actually were going to be taking that in a month or so). Anyway, the steak was good as usual - though as they were running out of things, there was no vanilla ice cream to be had. We started to see the ocean soon after I sat down for dinner, though fog was blocking the view for about a half hour until it finally cleared enough to get good ocean views (and we were on the side of the dining car perfectly situated for that). The views did not disappoint - I've seen the ocean on the Surfliner LAX-SAN, but the northern ocean segment seemed longer - and perhaps a bit more interesting due to being in a bit more remote location. We had views of the ocean (with a few breaks) for nearly two hours (with portions of that being parallel to the Pacific Coast Highway), finally turning away shortly before arriving in Oxnard, where we arrived and departed early (this is a discharge-only stop).

Anyway, as of now we're somewhere between Oxnard and Simi Valley, with the sun about to set on the adventure. We've now joined the route of the Metrolink Ventura County Line - a sign that we're finally closing in on LA (and ultimately San Diego after a quick train change). Definitely an enjoyable ride there - I hope to take it again sometime soon. Though I may opt for the Amtrak bus to SLO+ #790 Surfliner instead as it would give me the highlights of this trip, yet would be doable for a 1500 pt AGR redemption plus would give me 3 hrs more sleep despite leaving 15 min later from the Ferry Building...
 
It is very common for passengers to book day travel in the sleepers on the CS. Perhaps that particular SCA had not seen you earlier in the sleepers and merely wanted to confirm your "appropriateness" to be in there. I have generally found that the SCAs on the CS (as well as other Amtrak LD trains in the west) do a remarkable job of not only remembering faces of their sleeping car patrons, but also what room they are in.
 
I figured day sleepers were common on the Coast Starlight - makes sense, particularly for the NorCal-SoCal trips. In my time in the dining car, I ran I to multiple people who were doing the same... I guess this person must have just missed me - I got on at OKJ and went to the dining car shortly after, so that may have thrown them off.

Anyway, #11 just pulled into LAX 15 min ago or so - over a half-hour early! The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, except for a mixup involving a few people in the sleepers who were supposed to get off at Simi Valley. Somehow, they forgot about these people and didn't open that car due to a mixup with their paperwork - eventually they backed up the train a little bit and opened the sleeper. It was interesting to hear the back-and-forth over the loudspeaker about this. Now Im just waiting for #796 (which I seem to end up on regularly) - though I wish the CS could just go all the way to SAN and avoid the need for this switching...

Looking forward to getting some sleep...

Update: #796 departed basically on time, though I had a minor panic when I couldn't find the California Rail Pass that went with my tickets as it had somehow fallen out of my pocket. In the end, they didn't ask for it, so at least I didn't have to buy a new ticket (the Rail Pass is supposed to be presented with the tickets). Rest of the ride was uneventful, except for a little April Fools joke around Solana Beach where they announced "our next station stop is Santa Barbara...Santa Barbara...APRIL FOOLS its Solana Beach". Wonder if anyone who had slept through most of the ride woke up and briefly thought they had got on the wrong train? Anyway, we made it in on time - hopefully Ill get some sleep! I figure this will be my last LD trip for a few months or so- will probably do a few Surfliner runs though.
 
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Just out of curiosity, why not take the PacSurf to LAX, Coast Starlate to San Jose, and Caltrain to San Francisco? It's probably a bit cheaper to get the trip all on Amtrak, but I think I would personally prefer the all-rail route. Now, that would mean that the Coast Starlight would have to be dead on time to get a similar 10 PM arrival in San Francisco - a 1 hour penalty if that connection is missed. Cost is similar +/- $10 or so.

Great report, though. I miss the West!
 
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I was taking the CS southbound only (did the overnight bus and San Joaquin northbound), but I did think about that - the main issue being that I'd probably miss breakfast if I started at SJC. Also, Id have to take Muni or a cab (or a long walk) to get to 4th & King - and the Thruway bus stop was just a few blocks away (of course, I ended up in a cab anyway, but that wasn't the plan...) Also, on weekends, you'd be stuck on a local Caltrain. Would be interesting to do sometime - perhaps when going northbound...

Anyway, I will say that was a bit long of a trip - particularly with the early departure and 1AM arrival at SAN. Next time I go to SF, I may fly at least one way (it really wasn't that bad when I did it, particularly with the BART connection), or I may take one of the shorter train-bus combos, preferably one I could do for 1500 AGR pts. In that regard, the bus to 1790/790 (SLO-SAN) is somewhat tempting as a southbound route. I do love the Coast Starlight, though - probably just do that on longer trips though (and preferably no weeknight 1AM arrivals...)
 
If you should decide to fly to San Jose, Valley Transit Authority offers a free shuttle bus between the airport and the Santa Clara Caltrain station.
 
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