Getting on at Folsom street, or Emeryville

I'm taking the Zephyr from San Francisco to Denver.

I wonder what is wise, Since traffic in the SFO area is really bad on a monday morning.

I could take a early Ferry to San Francisco and then go to Amtrak on Folsom Street.

Or I could travel to Emeryville on Sunday night, get a hotel and board the train at Emeryville.

Does the train wait for passengers coming from the SFO bus stops?

Tnx,

Siep.

Have you looked into Amtrak bus transfer? You can be picked up by an Ambus at transbay downtown and it will only add a couple of dollars to the price.

Is it the Monday July 3rd? It might not be that bad seeing the next day is a holiday.

SF said:

Have you looked into Amtrak bus transfer? You can be picked up by an Ambus at transbay downtown and it will only add a couple of dollars to the price.

Is it the Monday July 3rd? It might not be that bad seeing the next day is a holiday.

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My travel dates are in October, just planning my Vacation.

The idea is after visiting friends near SFO to travel to Denver and then fly to other friends is Kansas.

Never traveled on Amtrak before.

There are dedicated buses to get pax from (and to) SF to (and from) Emeryville. The train will wait for the buses (and the buses will wait for the train).

AmtrakBlue said:

There are dedicated buses to get pax from (and to) SF to (and from) Emeryville. The train will wait for the buses (and the buses will wait for the train).

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Tnx.

The Amtrak bus starts at Pier39 then to the Hyatt on Drum, then to the temp Trans bay term, then to Emmeryville. There is no additional charge when taking the CZ. Just reverse the route when arriving. There is also a similar bus for the CS with the same stops.

SF said:

Have you looked into Amtrak bus transfer? You can be picked up by an Ambus at transbay downtown and it will only add a couple of dollars to the price.

Is it the Monday July 3rd? It might not be that bad seeing the next day is a holiday.

Click to expand...

I think the reference is to the Temporary Transbay Terminal (SFC station) which is the block surrounded by Folsom, Howard, Main, and Beale Streets. The benefit there is that one can check in baggage and have it automatically transferred to the train. For the OP, Amtrak is subleasing the use of the building from Greyhound, so Greyhound's building is the place you'll want to go to.

Theoretically something could happen that delays the bus getting to Emeryville. The eastbound Bay Bridge traffic in the morning is normally very light as it's the reverse commute. It would be exceedingly rare for there to be such a long delay that the train wouldn't wait for the bus, since that's going to be a good chunk of their starting passengers in Emeryville. It would take something extreme like the California Highway Patrol shutting down the bridge (they might do that if there's an active shooting incident) for that to happen. Even if the train leaves before the bus arrives, it's actually pretty slow getting up to Reno. They could conceivably just assign a bus to play catchup anywhere from Davis to Reno. The CZ is scheduled to get to Reno after 7 hours of train time. It would take less than 4 hours by bus.