Ferry Building in San Francisco

I'll be taking Amtrak's Zehyr into Emeryville on Sunday, 4/11 with a bus connection to San Francisco's Ferry Bldg. My question: is the Ferry Building staffed, or does it have public phones, where I can call for a cab to my hotel? I'll be getting in rather late. Does the station in the Ferry Bldg. close at any certain time?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Carol

I'm no expert, but I did take an Amtrak bus from the Ferry Building to Emeryville to transfer to the Coast Starlight once, so I may be able to help. I believe that the ferry building station is staffed. I'm not sure if there is a pay phone there, but it is likely because it's in a fairly busy area. If not, there's probably one across the street or nearby.

The SF Ferry Building Station is currently closed and unstaffed due to flooding, but is supposed to reopen sometime this month. You might want to contact Amtrak directly to see if it will be opened before your trip. Otherwise there are plenty of payphones nearby and transportation is available right in front of the station.

Oh, I didn't know about that, there wasn't any flooding when I was last there.

That last post was me, I forgot to login.

The Ferry Building has been closed at least going on a year now. Actually the Amtrak station is in the building just south of the Ferry Building. Depending upon the location of your hotel you might want to see if the bus makes stops at the Hyatt in Justin Herman Plaza, or at the San Francisco Shopping Center (very close to the Marriott and other hotels in Union Square) as it would eliminate the need for a cab to the hotel. If the bus does make the additional stops you can get off at the closest stop to your hotel even with a ticket to the Ferry Building.

If the Zephyr is close to on time the latest you should get into SF is around 7-8 PM and you should have np problem hailing a cab on the street. Also there are plenty of pay phones in the Ferry Building and surrounding area itself since it's reopening to Ferry passengers a few months ago.

According the the printed schedule, on the Starlight, southbound, buses take passengers from the train at Emeryville to downtown San Francisco and make various stops at: Ferry Building (101 The Embarcadero (at Mission Street)), the Business District(Hyatt Regency at Calif and Drumm Sts.), Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39), San Francisco Shopping Center (4th and Market Sts), and at the Caltrain (ex-SP) station.

Southbound passengers from San Francisco are taken to the Oakland station to board the train.

Northbound, passengers from the train are taken from Oakland to San Francisco; passengers to the train are put on at Emeryville.

Some one asked about leaving baggage at the Ferry Building station; is it possible to leave bags at the Emeryville station before coming over on the bus? Also, what about the Caltrain station, is there a storage facility there? The Greyhound station is at about 7th and Market. They would ahve storage lockers also, wouldn't they?

There is no storage at the CalTrain Station at all aside from a ticket window there isn't much there at all. As for the Greyhound Station it is located in the Transbay Terminal at First and Mission Streets. I believe it might be possible to leave baggage at Emeryville but I am not sure on that one it might also be possible to leave luggage at Jack London Square but again I am also not sure. The best bet is to give the stations a call and find out they are manned and their #'s should be located in the Stations section of the Amtrak timetable.

What about the Transbay Terminal, are there storage lockers available there?

It's been years since I have been in San Francisco. Apparently a lot has changed since then.

I grabbed the Amtrak bus at the Ferry Building a couple of months ago to Emeryville to catch the Coast Starlight. The bus stop is between the currently closed Amtrak office (hard to miss - big sign that says Amtrak) and the Ferry Building.

It is well lit, safe, with lots of people around. Great local bar/restaurant in between the two buildings on the Bay.

Emeryville will check your luggage at any time for any train. I checked my Coast Starlight bag at 11:00am, went back to San Francisco, and returned that evening for the departure. I do not know if they will hold non-checked baggage.

steve_relei said:

What about the Transbay Terminal, are there storage lockers available there?
It's been years since I have been in San Francisco. Apparently a lot has changed since then.

Click to expand...

I don't believe there are lockers at Transbay then again it's been a couple of years since I've been in the Greyhound portion of the terminal.

As long as you are a passenger on Amtrak, I think you can leave your baggage with an Amtrak baggage office. I have done it a few times. Sometimes there might be a small fee. Most major Greyhound stations have storage lockers, and I would assume San Francisco would have a major Greyhound station. Portland does, and there are storage lockers there.

What I am trying to figure out: if a person arrives by train, takes the bus to San Francisco, wants to spend a day touring the city--without cumbersome baggage, perhaps catch another train later that day, what would be the best way to do that? I know San Francisco pretty well, but a lot of people do not.They not only have to leave their baggage somewhere, they have to be able to find and go back to where they left it, and get back on the bus to go back to Emeryville or Oakland to board the train. Walking around with baggage in one's hand is not the safest thing to do in a large city--even in San Francisco.

Another thing that complicates matters is that on the Coast Starlight, southbound passengers get off the train at Emeryville and take the bus from there to San Francisco. Southbound passengers from San Francisco are taken to Oakland to catch the train (not Emeryville). NOrthbound passengers leave the train at Oakland, bus to San Francisco; passengers from San Francisco are buses to Emeryville for the ride northward. There could be problems if one left one's baggage at one station rather than the other.

So, does anybody have any good, pliable suggestions about leaving one's baggage in San Francisco (or at one of the stations) so that one could spend a day sightseeing and such in San Francisco?

If I were traveling southbound, I would actually get off at Oakland instead of Emeryville and leave my baggage at the station there. Then you get take the 72 or 72M bus (the station is the end of the line so there's usually a bus or two waiting there), or walk the ten blocks to the Oakland City Center/12th Street BART station. From there, you can take the BART to San Francisco. Plus, you get to see Jack London Square and downtown Oakland. Then, you just reverse the steps in the evening.

The northbound stopover involves an overnight stay, so you'll probably want to keep your bags with you.

You can also do essentially the same thing at the Emeryville station, but it's a bit more complicated (you can take a free Emery-Go-Round shuttle to the MacArthur BART station).

BerkeleyBear makes the best suggestion considering both BART and ACTransit run fairly late at night definitlely late enough to make any connection to the Starlate. If you chose to walk it is actually a bit closer and somewhat faster to walk to Oak Street and head to the Lake Merritt station. I do that occassionally when I miss the bus connection to the Capitol out of Fremont but still want to make the train.

Apparently there is another alternative: Get off the train at Jack London Square, leave your bags at the station, and board a ferry at JLS that will take you to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco. Fares seem nominal, and it would be a spectacular water-level ride under the Bay Bridge with the skyline in view. People could take the ferry both ways, or take a bus one way and ferry the other way. I like riding across the Bay Bridge.

East Bay Ferry Information

That is another great idea. I was at the Ferry Building on Saturday and they really re did the place nicely with a number of food markets as well as Slanted Door which is one of the City's best restaurants. I was making the comparisons of the remodeling of the Ferry Building to Grand Central Station but on a smaller scale.

The Amtrak office next door though is still closed and will be for the foreseeable future as there are still ongoing problems with the building.

Berkeley Bear:

I have never heard of the Emery-Go-Round free shuttle. As a resident of SF I am interested. How can I find out more about it? John Andrew

You can find info on the Emery Go Round here.