Change Thruway Bus Booking.

[KiwiKate]

How difficult is it to change pickup bookings on the Thruway Bus? We had already booked from Union Square, SFrancisco before learning about the Amtrak Office at Embarcadero. We want to be able to leave our luggage somewhere for the day and have a bit of a look-see before having to go to Emeryville and it sounds like the Amtrak Office is the best place for this. Emailed Amtrak about changing but no response. I'm hoping we can just get on the bus by showing our tickets no matter which stop we chose to leave from. Could it be that easy?? Second question - is it very difficult taking luggage on BART? Have read about the service and sounds good but it seems there is not too much room for lugging luggage! Thanks. Kate.

 

[tp49]

For the Thruway busses in San Francisco it does not matter where you get on the bus, the ticket will be accepted at any stop within the City of San Francisco, I know this from experience usually getting a ticket to the Ferry Building (Embarcadero) but almost always getting on at either the San Francisco Shopping Center (5th and Market St.) or the CalTrain Station at 4th and King.

I'm hoping we can just get on the bus by showing our tickets no matter which stop we chose to leave from. Could it be that easy??

Answer in a nutshell yes it is that easy. B)

As for the leaving the luggage at the Ferry Building stop, in the past this might have been possible however, currently that station is closed due to flooding in the building with an unknown date for reopening. The advisory is located on the webpage for the Capitol Corridor a service of Amtrak California and can be found here. while Amtrak California is not Amtrak per se they use the same stations namely the Ferry Building. Thus the baggage check would be at Emeryville and would most likely not be able to be done in San Francisco.

If you need any ideas as to where to keep the luggage during that day in SF I'm sure I can brainstorm something.

San Francisco Ticket Office Temporarily Closed

Due to interior flooding at the San Francisco Ticket Office (SFC, Ferry Building Annex), the facility will be closed for repairs beginning Dec. 18th. Although the facilities are closed, Amtrak Capitol Corridor Motorcoach operations are not affected. Passengers can take regular scheduled service to Emeryville and Oakland and be ticketed, as well as check baggage. There is no set date to re-open the facility yet. An update will be issued as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation and patience.

 

[tp49]

As for your question about BART, I figure you are arriving at SFO and plan to use BART to get to Downtown San Francisco. The SFO BART station is located in the International Terminal they have ticket machines in the station before you would go through the fare control.

I also figure that you know which station you will need to get to whereever you are staying and the cost to get there if not you can find that information here on BART's website along with schedule and hours of operation information as BART does close in the late evening.

Ease of bringing luggage on the train depends on how much you have but since you are getting on the train at an endpoint SFO it should be no problem. There are seats near the door that have space for wheelchair passengers and in my experience on BART have never seen a passenger with a wheelchair on a BART train, however this is a good area to sit with your luggage. If you try to fit you and your luggage in a regular row of seats you will have issues, and major ones at that so if you stick to the seats near the doors you will have no trouble at all. MUNI on the other hand would be a differrent story.

Also, if you have any questions about which station to get off for where you are going feel free to use the PM button and I can give you the answer as I am very farmiliar with most SF hotels and their location relative to BART.