Amtrak folks say I don’t need a ticket for the Capitol Train. Is this true?
I suspect what they really said is that you don’t need a reservation, or that you don’t need to purchase a ticket in advance. The one-way fare is $23.
If you board at Richmond, there is no penalty for buying a ticket from the conductor on the train. There is a penalty for buying tickets on the train when you board at a staffed station. Emeryville and Jack London are staffed, so plan accordingly if you decide to get on the train at either of those stations.
More Amtrak info is here.
I’m sorry. You haven’t made enough of an argument as to why you need to go to Sacramento (and, no, I don’t want to hear it).
Therefore my advice (and, yes, this is binding) is to forget going to Sacramento altogether. You’ll save train fare and a lot of planning and headaches if you follow what I insist you do:
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Take Delta JFK > SFO.
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Take the BART to North Beach or the Mission district.
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Check into the cute little hotel that you found cheap (either by walking around or on priceline).
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Sleep in, try that little place on the corner that makes waffles, take a cable car to Chinatown and the Haight, rent a bike and ride to Sausalito, find good fish tacos, buy a used paperback and take notes in the margins, watch a street performer.
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Call whoever you have to and tell them you just couldn’t make it to Sacramento. You’re having an attack of The Vapors. Maybe next year. So sorry.
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Sing to yourself as you walk down a street that no one knows you’re on…
You are practically spot-on with the exception that there is no place to get fish tacos in Sausalito. But if he is staying in the Mission, he could have a Mission Burrito and instead of biking to Sausalito, walk to The Ferry Building where he could grab a picnic lunch of salumi by Boccalone, Cow Girl Creamery Red Hawk triple cream cheese, Acme bread, a bottle of wine from the Ferry Plaza wine shop, and some stunning macarons or cannelé from Boulette’s Larder. Walk along the waterfront and admire our giant Claus Oldenburg Bow & Arrow, watch the street musicians, and end up at the Buena Vista for an Irish Coffee.
Then again, I also think it is a crime to come to this city and NOT get some Humphry Slocomb ice cream (I’m a big fan of the Eight Ball Stout, the Boccalone prosciutto, and the Curried Peanut Butter.)
Just stopped in to confirm that Coast Starlight is notoriously hours late by the time it gets to the Bay Area. As someone said earlier that is not a neighborhood you want to be sitting around in for hours at night.
Another idea would be to just rent a car and drive the 2 hours to Sac.
You’re right. I realized later that I hadn’t biked back across the bridge in my step-by-step list. But I had in my mind!
And, I did on my one trip to SF. The trip I made with zero itinerary. And no desire to do/see any touristy things. So after biking back, I checked out Fisherman’s Wharf, but continued walking down the Embarcadero and found a little mexican place serving cheap fish tacos, next to The Ferry Building – which was full of great food and coffee. And used books!
I never mentioned that I am a type II diabetic and thus my choice of foods is severely limited, but thanks anyway for the advice about eateries.
Hoo, boy. Just imagining any European taking our trains makes my head spin. Our trains aren’t terrible, but they’re not terribly fast either. The ICE or TGV they are most definitely not. On the other hand, they are the most comfortable form of long distance public transit that we have, and on some routes the scenery is well worth taking the time to look at. Probably not where the OP is going, though, and it’ll be dark anyway.
BTW the Coast Starlight doesn’t go to Sacramento at all.
That depends on the route. The Pacific Surfliner trains in Southern California are usually pretty close to full, as are the ones on the Northeast Corridor.
The true long distance trains, that run from one coast or boundary of the U.S. to the other, are usually completely full and require reservations some time in advance. They’re really more suited to leisure travelers than to anyone who needs to be somewhere on time.
Shut up. Shut up shut up hands over ears la la la I can’t hear yooooou.
Damn I love that city. Would have given anything to move there!
Even the San Joaquin from Fresno back to Oakland was shockingly full when I took it with my wife about a year ago. We had trouble finding two seats together.
Yes, it does. From the Amtrak website. Might you be confusing the Coast Starlight with the Pacific Surfliner service, which also runs along the coast but does not go north of San Luis Obispo?
Fair enough, but the Capitol Corridor between the Bay Area and Sacramento is extremely lightly traveled. I expect in the opening posters case that the train will be close to empty.
Just want to step in here with nothing much to say. Just to thank all the contributors to this thread.
I’ve done the Seattle - L.A. trip on the Coast Starlight, and I had somehow convinced myself that we didn’t go through Sacramento. Of course, given the time of day we stopped there, I was fast asleep in my berth, so I wouldn’t have been aware of making the stop. Yet I certainly perused the schedule when planning the trip.
No, I think my error was the one common to many people living in San Francisco or anywhere south: in that part of California, we tend to forget that, north of SF, the population and rail routes are concentrated inland rather than on the coast.
If you’ve ever made it from SFO up 101 across the Bay Bridge to Richmond in 1/2 hour on a Friday night, the traffic gods are really on your side.
Just one loon threatening to jump or blow up the bridge could screw up the whole deal.