Checked Baggage unload in BUR?

[baadbee]

OK, so the wife and I working out the final plan for our CS trip in July. She's a little worried about dealing with the Union station area of LA at night. She grew up in Orange county and considers that china town area some place best avoided. Not being from California I assume a train station with hundreds of people unloading can't be too dangerous. Are cabs readily available at the station? On the forum someone suggested departing at Burbank because it is a nicer area with more facilities, eg hotels and rental car outlets. One question, can you pick up checked luggage at Burbank? The station guide says it doesn't support checked luggage, is that only for boarding or also departing passengers?

The next stop north is Van Nuys. Can anyone comment on what facilities would be found there and the safety of the neighborhood? Our ultimate destination is Huntington Beach but taking the connecting train to Anaheim doesn't seem worth the layover and late arrival when it's still not the final destination. We figured it would be easier to just stay one night in a hotel in the LA area and drive south in the morning. We're used to traffic and need the rental car so an all public transit option isn't needed.

Thoughts?

 

[the_traveler]

If either your departing or destination station does not offer checked baggage service (even if one does but the other does not), you can not check your bags at all!

 

[WhoozOn1st]

No checked baggage at BUR, period.

L.A. Union Station is several blocks from Chinatown (although it was built on the site of L.A.'s original Chinatown), both are safe, and cabs are readily available on the front - Alameda Street - side of the station.

Van Nuys is in more of a business district than a neighborhood, and I'll leave it to somebody more familiar with the area.

 

[leemell]

OK, so the wife and I working out the final plan for our CS trip in July. She's a little worried about dealing with the Union station area of LA at night. She grew up in Orange county and considers that china town area some place best avoided. Not being from California I assume a train station with hundreds of people unloading can't be too dangerous. Are cabs readily available at the station? On the forum someone suggested departing at Burbank because it is a nicer area with more facilities, eg hotels and rental car outlets. One question, can you pick up checked luggage at Burbank? The station guide says it doesn't support checked luggage, is that only for boarding or also departing passengers?

The next stop north is Van Nuys. Can anyone comment on what facilities would be found there and the safety of the neighborhood? Our ultimate destination is Huntington Beach but taking the connecting train to Anaheim doesn't seem worth the layover and late arrival when it's still not the final destination. We figured it would be easier to just stay one night in a hotel in the LA area and drive south in the morning. We're used to traffic and need the rental car so an all public transit option isn't needed.

Thoughts?

The Van Nuys station is right on Van Nuys Bl. just south of the Plant shopping area. We have used it several times, you can get a cab there almost any time in fairly short order. There are regular Metro, Amtrak Thruway, and MTA buses running there as well. However, no rental cars, this is a smallish station with an Amtrak staff and security. This is a station for Metrolink, the Pacific Surfliner, as well as the Coast Starlight.

I would just use Union Station given your destination is much farther south.

 

[rogers55]

I always use the Van Nuys station because I live nearby but, if you are going to Anaheim, it makes a lot more sense to use Union Station. So far we have not encountered any security problems at any of the train stations. Union Station is patrolled by the Sheriffs Department and looks quite safe to me. Burbank is only good if your destination is nearby or you are going to Bob Hope Airport. There are no facilities there but they do have a shuttle to the airport terminal.

 

[pebbleworm]

Union Station in LA is safe as milk for grabbing a cab to a hotel. We stayed at the Miyako and had a great time.

http://www.miyakoinn.com/

I'll cheerfully admit that I am a city boy now, but LAX is by no means in a scary neighborhood!

 

[Karl1459]

If you don't use LAX consider booking the trip through to Anaheim, checking the bags, getting off where ever, and picking up the bags at Anaheim the next day.

 

[baadbee]

Hey, thanks for the idea of getting off at a different stop than the bags and then fetching them later. I hadn't thought of that and will keep it in mind. I'm really not worried about Union station myself so I just need to convince my wife that it is safe.

 

[AlanB]

LA's Union station is one of the safer stations around. Want an unsafe station head to Miami and walk to the end of the driveway and you'll be far more uncumfortable than you'd be in LA. I'm not saying that you might not see someone begging for money, but as long as you keep your luggage with you at all times you'll be perfectly safe. There are always plenty of people around, plenty of Amtrak staff around, and police too.

And as long as you leave the area by either taxi or local transit you'll be fine. If you were walking away from the station then things could be different, especially if you walk the wrong way. But again they take great strides to ensure safety in that station.

 

[Cristian]

I gave the OP originally the suggestion to get off at BUR (1 hour driving time away from Huntington Beach) in his other thread due to the fact that he wanted a rental car, and by the time his train would arrive at LAUS, those rental car offices would be closed. The train station is within walkable distance to the terminal (you can almost see the check-in counters from the train...)

The Van Nuys station was mentioned - it is staffed and has baggage services of course, however, there's nothing else interesting in the area, especially no rental car offices that would be open late, nor any decent hotels nearby. (Well, I live pretty close to that station )

So other than overnighting at BUR, the OP could get a hotel in downtown LA and take a cab there upon arrival at LAUS. Have you considered taking the connecting train to Anaheim or Santa Ana or even Irvine (the layover at LAUS would be 1 hour or less depending how late the CS is..) and try to find out if one of the hotels close to those stations can arrange a pickup for you upon arrival? For example, at the Anaheim station there is the Ayres Hotel which seems to have lots of good reviews and is only 0.4mi away; At the Irvine station there is a Residence Inn as well as a Dobletree close by. And the following day you'd be much closer to your final destination than BUR or LAUS.

 

[guest]

If you are ticketed to LAX, the car in which you're traveling may not be on the platform at BUR...and you'd have to let the attendant know that you want to get out there!