SJC by thruway bus or CS?

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Chey

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Sep 27, 2014
Messages
475
Location
NW TX
I'm going to San Jose in late July or early Aug - after I get off the SWC at Lax I can either catch the Coast Starlight or take 3 thruway buses.

I know the scenery is great on the CS, I've done this trip a couple of times before. I can't really say I'd miss it since I'm taking the Surfliner to LAX on the return trip. I want to know if anyone here has gone the bus route from LAX to SJC or beyond. Thruway Amtrak buses are significantly better than Greyhound but the two transfers (Bakersfield and Stockton) I'm not so sure about. And that's a lot of hours on buses with one bathroom. We're only talking about saving about $100. OTOH I've never seen Bakersfield or Stockton. Thoughts?
 
I think I also did the Bakersfield/Stockton route before northbound. I've also gone the other way, SJC thruway bus to Santa Barbara then Pacific Surfliner to Irvine. You do get views of the Pacific/coast on the Surfliner. I would probably rather do via Santa Barbara if I had the choice although you would be on the one bus longer than the two buses. You could also go San Joaquin up to Sacramento or Oakland or anywhere in between and then switch to a Capitols train to avoid a bus but that would probably be longer.

To me timing is also an issue. When I did Thruway/Surfliner I rode the bus in the middle of the night. The CS requires almost a full day of travel.
 
I've done the CS many times and would never tire of it. The scenery is absolutely stunning. The bus on the other habd, I'd rather stay home! I'm also quit certain I could live out the rest of my life very happily never seeing Bakersfield or Stockton again.
 
LOL! But it's a valid question and one that I asked myself as well! You're exactly right that the extra money is the issue. The schedules are amazingly close. The bus leaves at 10:30, the CS 20 minutes earlier at 10:10. Arrival by bus at SJC is 8:00 PM, the CS at 8:11 PM. So the question is, is it worth saving $100 to take the bus. It depends on what the bus trip is like. Seeing places I've never seen before is always an enticement. But I have to say that riding a train is one of the more powerful enticements in the world for me. $100 worth? I'm thinking, I'm thinking...
 
I found

761 LAX 7:35am - SLO 1:00pm

4761 bus SLO 1:05pm-SJC 5:05pm

or

763 LAX 9:20am-Santa Barbara 11:55am

4763 bus Santa Barbara 12:05pm-SJC 6:30pm

See how much that costs/takes.

Meanwhile the CS doesn't get into SJC until 8:11pm
 
The 763 is a possibility, thanks. It's about the same money as taking the 3 buses as opposed to 1 bus this way and you're right about saving time getting in. I didn't think to split up the trip to 2 segments.

Thanks for your help!
 
In the old days of AGR with minimum point segments, doing the bus-train-bus would be worth extra points. Now, not so much. Since you are coming off Amtrak SWC, going to San Jose is cheaper, but were this a one off trip I would even consider Megabus or Bolt between Los Angeles and San Jose. The one thing about the San Joaquins is, outside of weekends, the train is not crowded, even in summer and you will have your pick of seating.
 
I do this trip often. I would recommend Megabus or Bolt Bus if you want to save cash. Surfliner to SLO is nicer but more expensive; CS is the nicest trip of all. No point in taking the San Joaquin. I don't know where your three bus route comes from, but I'd avoid it if I were you.
 
I do this trip often. I would recommend Megabus or Bolt Bus if you want to save cash. Surfliner to SLO is nicer but more expensive; CS is the nicest trip of all. No point in taking the San Joaquin. I don't know where your three bus route comes from, but I'd avoid it if I were you.
It's two buses, not three. The San Joaquin is in the middle.

I've seen two posts this week (this post and http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/69578-why-cant-a-book-a-trip-that-doesnt-include-buses/)which show the lack of train service between the Los Angeles and Bay Areas. There is only one train (CS) that connects the two and the schedule is inconvenient both ways. The only train I remember along the CS route between the two cities was the Spirit of California. California can't run one train along that route but can afford to run SEVEN routes from the Bay Area to 100 miles away from LA? I'd trade 2-3 San Joaquins for one extra train along the CS route. Ideally there would be a train that went up from San Jose to San Fran (Caltrain route?) to have some Amtrak service in the city and/or a train that continued to San Diego serving Orange County. The Coast Starlight schedule is designed more for SEA/PDX than California and it would be infeasible to have an LD train terminate in San Diego. But a California only train shouldn't have a problem going down to San Diego so that would give San Diego residents the ability to travel to the Bay Area without changing trains (and the CS/Surfliner gets to San Diego at 1:06am and assumes you make the connection in LAX).
 
I do this trip often. I would recommend Megabus or Bolt Bus if you want to save cash. Surfliner to SLO is nicer but more expensive; CS is the nicest trip of all. No point in taking the San Joaquin. I don't know where your three bus route comes from, but I'd avoid it if I were you.
It's two buses, not three. The San Joaquin is in the middle.

I've seen two posts this week (this post and http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/69578-why-cant-a-book-a-trip-that-doesnt-include-buses/)which show the lack of train service between the Los Angeles and Bay Areas. There is only one train (CS) that connects the two and the schedule is inconvenient both ways. The only train I remember along the CS route between the two cities was the Spirit of California. California can't run one train along that route but can afford to run SEVEN routes from the Bay Area to 100 miles away from LA? I'd trade 2-3 San Joaquins for one extra train along the CS route. Ideally there would be a train that went up from San Jose to San Fran (Caltrain route?) to have some Amtrak service in the city and/or a train that continued to San Diego serving Orange County. The Coast Starlight schedule is designed more for SEA/PDX than California and it would be infeasible to have an LD train terminate in San Diego. But a California only train shouldn't have a problem going down to San Diego so that would give San Diego residents the ability to travel to the Bay Area without changing trains (and the CS/Surfliner gets to San Diego at 1:06am and assumes you make the connection in LAX).
The problem is that there is a mountain pass that has no more capacity for any additional trains. It's a single track railroad that has no practical way of getting more capacity. It's a shared route for BNSF and UP, and there are, from the latest statistics I remember, 60-70 trains a day over that route.
 
I do this trip often. I would recommend Megabus or Bolt Bus if you want to save cash. Surfliner to SLO is nicer but more expensive; CS is the nicest trip of all. No point in taking the San Joaquin. I don't know where your three bus route comes from, but I'd avoid it if I were you.
It's two buses, not three. The San Joaquin is in the middle.

I've seen two posts this week (this post and http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/69578-why-cant-a-book-a-trip-that-doesnt-include-buses/)which show the lack of train service between the Los Angeles and Bay Areas. There is only one train (CS) that connects the two and the schedule is inconvenient both ways. The only train I remember along the CS route between the two cities was the Spirit of California. California can't run one train along that route but can afford to run SEVEN routes from the Bay Area to 100 miles away from LA? I'd trade 2-3 San Joaquins for one extra train along the CS route. Ideally there would be a train that went up from San Jose to San Fran (Caltrain route?) to have some Amtrak service in the city and/or a train that continued to San Diego serving Orange County. The Coast Starlight schedule is designed more for SEA/PDX than California and it would be infeasible to have an LD train terminate in San Diego. But a California only train shouldn't have a problem going down to San Diego so that would give San Diego residents the ability to travel to the Bay Area without changing trains (and the CS/Surfliner gets to San Diego at 1:06am and assumes you make the connection in LAX).
Implementation of the Coast Daylight is underway. Train 761 was from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo (SLO). About seven weeks ago the origination point was moved to San Diego (unfortunately at 4 AM!!). The plan is to continue beyond SLO to either San Jose or San Francisco (northern endpoint still undecided). Additional investment in infrastructure and rolling stock is required to move forward, as well as planning with the host railroad. This needs to be put in the context of funding coming from a state that has brought squandering money to a level perhaps never before seen by man. The low speed train to nowhere being one of the best examples. Additional context is if one would look at Southwest Airlines ALONE during business hours I wonder how often a flight would depart one of the perhaps six largest southern California airports to one of the bay area airports? Probably a flight every five minutes. Now Add United, American, Alaskan...... If it happens, it could be another decade. Who knows?

--Bill
 
What everybody always forgets on this topic in addition to the traffic on Tehachapi is the extra time involved.

Even in the old-time days of passenger rail in Los Angeles (it is actually much better today) there was a connecting bus that SP ran a couple of hours after the SJ Daylight left to make connections to the train in Bakersfield. The time over the pass adds a lot to the travel duration and with the current traffic south/east of Bakersfield and in the LA basin with Metrolink and the Surfliners it would only get more challenging.
 
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