Okay, need some help from my Outsports friends in the Bay Area/Northern California. I am going on a business trip to Sacramento next month and my business ends on a Friday. I have arranged to fly in to Sacramento and fly out of SF, and need to figure out the easiest way to get from downtown SAC to downtown SF. I checked Amtrak, but you have to change from the train to a bus in Emeryville, and I'd love to find a way, w/out a one-way car rental, to do the trip on only one mode of transport.

Any ideas?

Nation Wide Car Service or
Greyhound

If you can get to BART's Antioch station from Sacto, you can then BART all the way to SFO if you so desire. Otherwise, Greyhound's the way to go, or you could AMTRAK to Richmond and then catch BART there.

The Amtrak bus from Emeryville to SF is not so bad. It is an Amtrak bus so the connection is guaranteed. It's works pretty seamlessly moving from train to bus. Years ago, before I had a car, I did this routine quite frequently to visit family in Stockton.

The Richmond BART alternative that gmg mentioned is fine, too. I've done that as well. The problems are that you need to leave the Amtrak station, go up and down etc., to get to the BART platform. Can be a hassle if you have a lot of bags. Also, Richmond can be sketchy. Compare this to Emeryville where you extit the train, walk through the station and get on the train. And the station is in a decent part of town.

I've never taken Greyhound, but if you really do not want to transfer modes of travel, then that is probably your only option. I know there are shuttle services from Stockton to SFO, and I imagine there are similar ones from Sacto, but they be probably twice as much as Amtrak.

And hey, on the train, you have more room, you can walk around. And the trip is about two hours, the right amount of time to have a cup of coffee, sit and read for a bit, and watch the world go by. I say go for the train.

Actually, if cpt_doom is searching for this option, there is no Antioch BART station. It's actually in Pittsburg, right next to Antioch, and is also referred to as the Baypoint station. wink

http://bart.gov/index.asp

I imagine there will be an Antioch station at some point in the future. Isn't the plan to take it all the way to Stockton? But because of the perils of laying tracks along the delta, they will probably do this over the Altamont, from Dublin/Pleasanton to Tracy and then Stockton. Considering the number of people (crazy people, I might add ) who commute daily from the valley to the Bay Area, there is probably demand.

Having lived in Sac and made that trip several times, the best way I could recommend to use only 1 mode of transport, is the Greyhound. The others all involve something like a transfer or huge inconvenience along those lines. By far the best mode is Greyhound to not have to transfer.

Right you are, PSF. Antioch is in the works, but not yet on BART's operating line; Bay Point is the present terminus. I agree re: AMTRAK/Emeryville - not that big a deal and the bus does wait for the train.

Just to close out this thread - thanks for all your input. I have decided to risk the train/bus combo - I was simply worried that the connection seemed to fast (two minutes) and was likely to be missed. The Amtrak site did not make it clear it was all Amtrak service, so the bus waits for the train.

Of course, this means that if the trip does not go well, I am well within my rights to blame all SF-based Outsportsters!