California Rail Pass Quesitons

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Sue

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I have never been to California and would like to tour around Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and other areas. Would this pass be a good investment? Really don't want to rent a car. There would be 2 adults and 1 child. Any drawbacks? Hard to get a reservation or blackout dates?

Thanks,

Sue
 
I have never been to California and would like to tour around Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and other areas. Would this pass be a good investment? Really don't want to rent a car. There would be 2 adults and 1 child. Any drawbacks? Hard to get a reservation or blackout dates?

Thanks,

Sue
Sue- Where are you planning on going? Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are all well-served by Amtrak California, but "other areas" may not be. How comfortable are you with riding a bus? A lot of the connections between Northern and Southern California require a bus ride. Although the buses are clean and comfortable and the connections are guaranteed- ie, the train will wait for the bus and vice versa if either is late- some people simply won't set foot on a motorcoach.

The Amtrak trains will serve you well to get between each of these cities, but will do little to allow you to tour around within them. Local public transit in southern CA is getting better- but it still isn't comparable to Eastern cities or Europe. Also, be aware that in Los Angeles, you cannot buy a day pass onboard a bus without a TAP card. You can purchase a paper day pass at any Metro Rail station, including Union Station (the Amtrak terminal), but be sure to do this before you leave.

As far as reservations, most of the time you'll be traveling on the California service trains- the San Joaquins and Pacific Surfliner especially. The latter is an unreserved train- I believe you do need reservations when traveling on a rail pass, but I wouldn't worry about making them. The San Joaquins are reserved trains, but they're rarely sold out. The Coast Starlight, which is also covered by the rail pass, may be sold out on particularly popular days, but there are alternatives that will get you where you're going in most cases.

There are no blackout dates, as far as I can tell in my research- but you are limited by what seats are available. You are also limited to coach travel only, which shouldn't be terribly problematic as, in most cases, you won't be traveling overnight. (You can pay to upgrade to business class on the Surfliner or sleepers on the Coast Starlight if you wish.)
 
Thank you for your response. The trip is in rough plans at this time. Not sure what cities to hit besides San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. What do you recommend? Any how many days for each city? I know we will spend some time in Anaheim to go to Disney, then would like to hit the "big" stuff. Is 2-3 days enough in the cities? I don't mind taking the motorcoach as long as it is not an 5+ hour trip. A few hours is fine. I know we will need city buses to get around too.

Thank you,

Sue
 
As far as tourist-friendly cities, those three will about run the gamut in the state. However, California has plentiful natural wonders to offer. At the very least, if you've never been, you should spend some time in Yosemite National Park. (Amtrak provides service there, but it is an *early* departure from LA- read 4am. From SF the last connection is 7am. You might plan it between Los Angeles and San Francisco- that is, if you're willing to leave LA at either 1 or 4 am.)

Disneyland is a pretty easy connection either from Los Angeles or Anaheim. From LA, take the Metro 460 express direct. From Anaheim station, take the Anaheim Resort Transit route 15. (More info at metro.net and rideart.org respectively.)

The bus between LA and Bakersfield is a 3-ish hour trip. I'm not sure how long the ride is between Merced and Yosemite. The ride to San Francisco is a quick 20 minutes right over the Bay Bridge.

As far as time in each city, it depends on what you want to do. If you hit any museums, zoos or amusement parks you'll probably want to allow time for each of those. Disneyland is easily seen in a day, and I wouldn't bother with California Adventure unless you're getting in free. (Often, specials will allow you to do just that.) It's basically three big rides and a lot of gift shops. Do catch the San Diego Zoo, it is pretty incredible. If you can arrange transport, also catch the affiliated San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido. They have huge, multi-acre enclosures which replicate the animals' natural habitat, and you can see them wandering about as if they were still in Africa or Asia. You can get there on transit- from the Oceanside station (Amtrak/Metrolink/COASTER/SPRINTER), take the SPRINTER to Escondido transit centre and then NCTD #386- but I don't know how the schedules will work out from you. It's pretty far out there.

In LA, the Getty Museum is pretty impressive, but perhaps not kid-friendly. The Griffith Observatory is also very cool, and they have an amazing, recently rebuilt planetarium- but unless you like hiking, the shuttle only runs on weekends. On the plus side, you get some fantastic views of the city- including the famed HOLLYWOOD sign (which is smaller than you think it is)- from up there. California Science Centre and the LA Museum of Natural History are both very nice, and located in Exposition Park. By the time you get here, we should have the Expo light rail line up and running, which will put these attractions within an easy train ride from Union Station. They're already pretty transit-accessible, though. Hollywood is a tourist trap, but a tourist trap with easy subway access. Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a block west of Hollywood/Highland station, while Hollywood/Vine station provides access to the walk of fame.

I absolutely love San Francisco, and if it weren't for a certain pesky graduate program I'd move there in a heartbeat. Everything there is 100% transit accessible- don't worry about it for a second. Check out Alcatraz and walk across the Golden Gate. Go to the California Academy of Sciences ($3 off if you show your transit pass.) When you ride the cable cars, stand on the sideboard- it's one of the few places in North America you can still do that. Get a burrito or taco in the Mission (but maybe do it for lunch? Some find the area a bit scary after dark. Our favourite place is called El Farolito, on Mission just north of 24th, less than a block from the 24th St. BART. Don't book a hotel in anything described as the "Civic Centre" area- this region is affectionately known as the Tenderloin and is essentially the city's skid row. Hotels are cheap, sure, but not worth it.

You may also consider heading to Sacramento. California's capitol city is a rather pleasant place, hemmed in by rivers on three sides, with pleasant parks, the quirky Midtown neighbourhood, Sutter's Fort (the place that began the gold rush), and the State Railroad Museum (part of tourist-trappy Old Town). Sacramento is an easy Amtrak trip from pretty much anywhere- two trains daily on the San Joaquins line plus innumerable Capitol Corridor trains from the Bay Area serve the station, as well as the Coast Starlight if you end up riding that. All of the tourist-friendly places are pretty well-served by Sacramento Regional Transit, including their two light rail lines, but note that frequency and service span drop off *quickly*- just a mile or so into the 'burbs and the buses run hourly, stopping at 7pm.

Hope this helps, and I hope you enjoy the trip to our fair state. We could use the tax revenue. :)
 
I would start in San Diego, and make your way north. For the major legs, I'd do this:

SD to Anaheim - Pacific surfliner

Anaheim to LA - Pacific surfliner

LA to EMY (SF) - Coast starlight (20 min bus ride from EMY to SF)

From SF you can take the san joaquins to yosemite (Bus takes you from the nearest station to the park) and back (Day trip - or you can spend the night there).

And you can also take the Capitol Corridor to Sacramento to visit the Capital if you like...

Then from SF you can take the Coast starlight back to LA or fly out from SFO!

Don't take the bus from LA —> Bakersfield then transfer to Amtrak californnia to get to SF... it sucks. Take the Coast Starlight (Its one of the BEST in the amtrak system!) This way you almost never have to take a bus!

And obviously while you are at those cities you can take the local trains/buses to nearby places/attractions - like metrolink in LA, or Muni/Caltrain/Bart in SF, etc

Hope this helps!
 
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You may also consider heading to Sacramento. California's capitol city is a rather pleasant place, hemmed in by rivers on three sides, with pleasant parks, the quirky Midtown neighbourhood, Sutter's Fort (the place that began the gold rush), and the State Railroad Museum (part of tourist-trappy Old Town). Sacramento is an easy Amtrak trip from pretty much anywhere- two trains daily on the San Joaquins line plus innumerable Capitol Corridor trains from the Bay Area serve the station, as well as the Coast Starlight if you end up riding that. All of the tourist-friendly places are pretty well-served by Sacramento Regional Transit, including their two light rail lines, but note that frequency and service span drop off *quickly*- just a mile or so into the 'burbs and the buses run hourly, stopping at 7pm.
Sacramento has its points but we're only hemmed in by rivers on two sides. :) For all of the real touristy places in Sacramento one need not go into the "burbs" at all the farthest out would be Sutter's Fort and that's still on the grid, and having lived in Midtown I would honestly say it isn't worth a special trip to see. As for Sac RT the service is expensive per ride in comparison with most cities in America, there are no transfers so a new fare is paid on each boarding and all light rail and bus service stops at 9PM.
 
As far as tourist-friendly cities, those three will about run the gamut in the state. However, California has plentiful natural wonders to offer. At the very least, if you've never been, you should spend some time in Yosemite National Park. (Amtrak provides service there, but it is an *early* departure from LA- read 4am. From SF the last connection is 7am. You might plan it between Los Angeles and San Francisco- that is, if you're willing to leave LA at either 1 or 4 am.)

Disneyland is a pretty easy connection either from Los Angeles or Anaheim. From LA, take the Metro 460 express direct. From Anaheim station, take the Anaheim Resort Transit route 15. (More info at metro.net and rideart.org respectively.)

The bus between LA and Bakersfield is a 3-ish hour trip. I'm not sure how long the ride is between Merced and Yosemite. The ride to San Francisco is a quick 20 minutes right over the Bay Bridge.

As far as time in each city, it depends on what you want to do. If you hit any museums, zoos or amusement parks you'll probably want to allow time for each of those. Disneyland is easily seen in a day, and I wouldn't bother with California Adventure unless you're getting in free. (Often, specials will allow you to do just that.) It's basically three big rides and a lot of gift shops. Do catch the San Diego Zoo, it is pretty incredible. If you can arrange transport, also catch the affiliated San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido. They have huge, multi-acre enclosures which replicate the animals' natural habitat, and you can see them wandering about as if they were still in Africa or Asia. You can get there on transit- from the Oceanside station (Amtrak/Metrolink/COASTER/SPRINTER), take the SPRINTER to Escondido transit centre and then NCTD #386- but I don't know how the schedules will work out from you. It's pretty far out there.

In LA, the Getty Museum is pretty impressive, but perhaps not kid-friendly. The Griffith Observatory is also very cool, and they have an amazing, recently rebuilt planetarium- but unless you like hiking, the shuttle only runs on weekends. On the plus side, you get some fantastic views of the city- including the famed HOLLYWOOD sign (which is smaller than you think it is)- from up there. California Science Centre and the LA Museum of Natural History are both very nice, and located in Exposition Park. By the time you get here, we should have the Expo light rail line up and running, which will put these attractions within an easy train ride from Union Station. They're already pretty transit-accessible, though. Hollywood is a tourist trap, but a tourist trap with easy subway access. Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a block west of Hollywood/Highland station, while Hollywood/Vine station provides access to the walk of fame.

I absolutely love San Francisco, and if it weren't for a certain pesky graduate program I'd move there in a heartbeat. Everything there is 100% transit accessible- don't worry about it for a second. Check out Alcatraz and walk across the Golden Gate. Go to the California Academy of Sciences ($3 off if you show your transit pass.) When you ride the cable cars, stand on the sideboard- it's one of the few places in North America you can still do that. Get a burrito or taco in the Mission (but maybe do it for lunch? Some find the area a bit scary after dark. Our favourite place is called El Farolito, on Mission just north of 24th, less than a block from the 24th St. BART. Don't book a hotel in anything described as the "Civic Centre" area- this region is affectionately known as the Tenderloin and is essentially the city's skid row. Hotels are cheap, sure, but not worth it.

You may also consider heading to Sacramento. California's capitol city is a rather pleasant place, hemmed in by rivers on three sides, with pleasant parks, the quirky Midtown neighbourhood, Sutter's Fort (the place that began the gold rush), and the State Railroad Museum (part of tourist-trappy Old Town). Sacramento is an easy Amtrak trip from pretty much anywhere- two trains daily on the San Joaquins line plus innumerable Capitol Corridor trains from the Bay Area serve the station, as well as the Coast Starlight if you end up riding that. All of the tourist-friendly places are pretty well-served by Sacramento Regional Transit, including their two light rail lines, but note that frequency and service span drop off *quickly*- just a mile or so into the 'burbs and the buses run hourly, stopping at 7pm.

Hope this helps, and I hope you enjoy the trip to our fair state. We could use the tax revenue. :)

You should post some of this on the new "what to see and where" forum. Nice information. Thank you.
 
You may also consider heading to Sacramento. California's capitol city is a rather pleasant place, hemmed in by rivers on three sides, with pleasant parks, the quirky Midtown neighbourhood, Sutter's Fort (the place that began the gold rush), and the State Railroad Museum (part of tourist-trappy Old Town). Sacramento is an easy Amtrak trip from pretty much anywhere- two trains daily on the San Joaquins line plus innumerable Capitol Corridor trains from the Bay Area serve the station, as well as the Coast Starlight if you end up riding that. All of the tourist-friendly places are pretty well-served by Sacramento Regional Transit, including their two light rail lines, but note that frequency and service span drop off *quickly*- just a mile or so into the 'burbs and the buses run hourly, stopping at 7pm.
Sacramento has its points but we're only hemmed in by rivers on two sides. :) For all of the real touristy places in Sacramento one need not go into the "burbs" at all the farthest out would be Sutter's Fort and that's still on the grid, and having lived in Midtown I would honestly say it isn't worth a special trip to see. As for Sac RT the service is expensive per ride in comparison with most cities in America, there are no transfers so a new fare is paid on each boarding and all light rail and bus service stops at 9PM.
See, I think of where the American River turns south at the CSUS campus as blocking the city proper in from three sides. Also, it looks like SacRT has cut service substantially since I was last in the city- my condolences.
 
Last November my girl friend and I planned a trip from Dunsmuir Ca to Long Beach, a side trip to San Diego and then return to Dunsmuir. I saw the California Rail pass and figured it is a good value so attempted to purchase two passes and book the trip.

Ok, I live in Mount Shasta, which is 60 or so mile north of Redding CA on I-5. My nearest California Amtrak Staffed station is Sacramento! What I found out was that I could not purchase on line and have the rail pass and trip sent to me. I was told that I had a week to go to a staffed Amtrak station where I would be able to purchase the pass and tickets.

OK, who designed this program? What reason is it that a passenger has to travel to a Staffed Amtrak station to purchase the pass and tickets?

I can go on line and purchase a Euro RailPass, pay for it on line and have it sent to me at my house. Why, Why, Why is California Amtrak and Amtrak not doing this also. I have posted this complaint before but have never gotten a answer (what reason is it that we cant' purchase online and have the pass and tickets sent to us?)

So, after the HASSEL of getting the CaliforniaRail Pass and tickets our trip on the Coast Starlight, Surf Liner and San Joaquin routes was great! No late trains or busses until the start of our return trip. The bus was late picking us up at the Catalina Island Ferry station, and then proceeded to break down on the freeway with in 3 mile of the pick up point. The air brake low air buzzer was going off the hook! So the driver called Dispatch notified them of the problem, told them he was ordering another bus. That bus arrived in 20 minutes and we transferred to it. The driver was very helpful and professional. We arrived in Bakersfield to late for our train but there was another train in about 1 hour.

Our connection with the Coast Starlight from the San Joaquin was perfect and our ride home on the CSL was one time.

So the only problem is getting the Rail Pass and Ticket. HINT: Check with EuRail and see how the do it and copy their pattern!!
 
Last November my girl friend and I planned a trip from Dunsmuir Ca to Long Beach, a side trip to San Diego and then return to Dunsmuir. I saw the California Rail pass and figured it is a good value so attempted to purchase two passes and book the trip.

Ok, I live in Mount Shasta, which is 60 or so mile north of Redding CA on I-5. My nearest California Amtrak Staffed station is Sacramento! What I found out was that I could not purchase on line and have the rail pass and trip sent to me. I was told that I had a week to go to a staffed Amtrak station where I would be able to purchase the pass and tickets.

OK, who designed this program? What reason is it that a passenger has to travel to a Staffed Amtrak station to purchase the pass and tickets?

I can go on line and purchase a Euro RailPass, pay for it on line and have it sent to me at my house. Why, Why, Why is California Amtrak and Amtrak not doing this also. I have posted this complaint before but have never gotten a answer (what reason is it that we cant' purchase online and have the pass and tickets sent to us?)

So, after the HASSEL of getting the CaliforniaRail Pass and tickets our trip on the Coast Starlight, Surf Liner and San Joaquin routes was great! No late trains or busses until the start of our return trip. The bus was late picking us up at the Catalina Island Ferry station, and then proceeded to break down on the freeway with in 3 mile of the pick up point. The air brake low air buzzer was going off the hook! So the driver called Dispatch notified them of the problem, told them he was ordering another bus. That bus arrived in 20 minutes and we transferred to it. The driver was very helpful and professional. We arrived in Bakersfield to late for our train but there was another train in about 1 hour.

Our connection with the Coast Starlight from the San Joaquin was perfect and our ride home on the CSL was one time.

So the only problem is getting the Rail Pass and Ticket. HINT: Check with EuRail and see how the do it and copy their pattern!!
I know this is an old, old thread, but I thought they could ordered by phone and picked up at a staffed station. And I also thought it could be any Amtrak staffed station, including those outside of California. In this particular case, isn't the closest staffed station Klamath Falls, although it has limited hours because only the Coast Starlight operates there.
 
The California Rail pass (A printed out "Rail Pass" on Amtrak Ticket Stock) needs to be affixed into a California Rail Pass Sleeve (Tri-Fold) in order for it to be valid. I am not sure if these are distributed to stations outside of California, although you would think people outside California would want to purchase them. Even with that said I have had my pass affixed into a USA Rail Pass Sleeve by mistake before with no issues (this was at EMY). The reasoning for this is there are spaces that are supposed to be filled out each day the pass is used to keep track. I never have had anyone fill out anything inside the pass sleeve. It also is a requirement that the paper tickets (yes... all tickets must be paper tickets with the pass for each segment as well) be presented with the pass in order to be valid. Again, I've never been asked to see a pass at all. Sometimes the conductors didn't even collect the paper ticket.

Main things to note with the pass that they do generally require: It must be ordered on the phone and picked up and paid for at the station (and the person whose name is on the pass must be present, although I've had them put in notations for me so I could pick up a pass and pay for it for someone else though that isn't the norm). Any changes to the pass also require exchanging the paper tickets at a staffed station. If you lose the paper tickets then you are generally out of luck.
 
Main things to note with the pass that they do generally require: It must be ordered on the phone and picked up and paid for at the station (and the person whose name is on the pass must be present, although I've had them put in notations for me so I could pick up a pass and pay for it for someone else though that isn't the norm). Any changes to the pass also require exchanging the paper tickets at a staffed station. If you lose the paper tickets then you are generally out of luck.
I was talking to a conductor, and he said his punch basically only gets used for punching transit transfers. However, it sounds like the tickets issued from a California Rail Pass (or USA Rail Pass) would need to be punched.

I remember a fellow passenger asking a conductor about it and then me. She thought a 10-ride was too expensive, and probably was for her particular endpoints. She didn't work every weekday so getting a monthly didn't make sense. She had heard of ways to get around the max 4 one-way trips for a particular "route segment".

I wouldn't really have a need for one for my commute (and I don't like live tickets) but might consider this if I were traveling on vacation. It would probably pay for itself with a round trip on the CS, and after that I could probably try something like using the remaining days for my commute.
 
Since unlike the USA Rail Pass there are no capacity controls (any seat available can be taken) and no blackouts, I've wondered why more people don't use the California Rail Pass during the peak season. High bucket fares on the San Joaquin can hit over $100 one way and often gets to the $87 level for LA to Bay Area station trip pairs. The paper ticket thing is annoying but manageable as most of the stations in urban areas are staffed. If you can't use points on a special redemption (1,500 points for one rail and one connecting bus) then this is the second best thing going.
 
Since unlike the USA Rail Pass there are no capacity controls (any seat available can be taken) and no blackouts, I've wondered why more people don't use the California Rail Pass during the peak season. High bucket fares on the San Joaquin can hit over $100 one way and often gets to the $87 level for LA to Bay Area station trip pairs. The paper ticket thing is annoying but manageable as most of the stations in urban areas are staffed. If you can't use points on a special redemption (1,500 points for one rail and one connecting bus) then this is the second best thing going.
After I bought tickets on behalf of someone else, I thought maybe it would have been cheaper. However, the logistics wouldn't have been good. They had a total of $363 for two passengers from Irvine to Emeryville and back the Wed before and Sun after Thanksgiving. Two California Rail Passes would have been $318, but then they'd have to arrange for reservations, and I don't know if I could do that for them. Even if I could, then there's the risk of losing the tickets in the mail or not arriving on time. It was a lot easier to deal with Amtrak.com and then including an additional email address. They got it directly and there were no hassles.

I think I could manage just fine, but I'm familiar with Amtrak and have access to three or four staffed stations.
 
The prices can be affected by capacity controls as well with the California Rail Pass. $159 is the default price, however if a majority of the seats go out the segment price can go up like bucket prices do. For example, sometimes I price out a San Joaquin trip to Southern California using the rail pass. Sometimes the total of the pass comes out to $170-something or what not. If I price it out by segment they will sometimes say that will be an additional $11 or something of that nature. This has been the same pricing it out on the Coast Starlight. What I have noticed is that the price doesn't seem to go up until the 3rd or 4th bucket rather than going up when the price goes up to the 2nd bucket. For example, a $58 on the San Joaquin goes up to $72, however the rail pass price wouldn't go up. If the price went up again to $88 the rail pass might have an upcharge, however it doesn't always based on where the threshold is set. What is nice is the ability to add the room though for just an accommodation price. What has been nice is you can use it going to/from Southern California multiple times which can save dramatically over the per-trip price.
 
I ran into some trouble today booking my holiday travel with a California Rail Pass. I was told that I could no longer complete my purchase over the phone, as I was able to as recently as July. I would have to buy the pass at a staffed station by the end of tomorrow (one day).

This is a HUGE inconvenience as I will have to make a special trip to the nearest staffed station 90 minutes away in Sacramento.

The agent was apologetic, but they were unable to extend the purchase window to the date of my travel. I expressed frustration about this apparent change and asked her to pass along my complaint.

I thought I would pass this along because it is very inconvenient.
 
As far as I know that has been the common policy. There have been agents that have gotten around that somehow or someway but the majority of my California Rail Passes I had to pick up and pay for at a staffed station by the end of the next day or else it would be cancelled.

I agree it would be nice to be able to pay for the pass over the phone and then pick up the pass holder and tickets the day of travel.
 
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