Arriving at OAK late on a Sunday afternoon...on a scale of one to 10, how difficult will it be to do the bus-BART thing into downtown San Francisco?

Or should I just chunk out the $40 for a cab or a shuttle?

TIA for any guidance...

It's pretty simple, actually.

http://www.transitinfo.org/Airports/

A cab from OAK? Are you insane???

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by EPS:
It's pretty simple, actually.

http://www.transitinfo.org/Airports/</font>

Thanks, EPS. AirBART it will be, then.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
A cab from OAK? Are you insane???</font>

Uh...well, I have been so accused in the past...

And I have been guilty of cabbing it to all three SF Bay Area airports, including a $137 ride to SJC.

(That one was vouchered, though.)

Aloha!

Just make sure you buy your ticket for the BART bus before leaving the airport. There are ticket vending machines right next to the doors before you exit. Fare for the bus is $2, but the drivers will only take the tickets, not cash.

You'll have to buy your train ticket once you arrive at the Coliseum station.

My opinion: if I can expense the trip, I'll take a shuttle or cab. If I'm paying for it myself, I'll drive to Oakland Airport if I have a car, take a shuttle if I have a heavy bag (or no bag) or it's nighttime, or take Bart if I'm not in a hurry, have a small or no bag, and it's daytime.

If you have heavy bags, Bart's a pain. You are going to get off the plane, pick up your bags (if they're checked), haul them out of the airport onto the AirBart bus (and by the way did you remember to buy your ticket - because if you didn't, you can't buy it on the bus), take the interminably slow bus ride to the Bart station, then haul your bags with you up the escalator (hope they're not too big!) to the train. It's better if you have just a light bag or no bag, but can be difficult to manage if you have a heavy bag or several bags.

Another few things that people should consider before using this option: (1) if there's an A's (or Raiders) game or other event at the Coliseum at the time you arrive at Bart, you will be dealing with your bags and a big crowd of people. You may not get on the first train that comes, and you may have to stand. No fun. (2) The crowd at the Coliseum station can be intimidating, especially at night. I've had people more or less demand that I buy AirBart tickets from them (instead of inside the Bart station), and hit me up for money. I personally don't like the scene there. It's better when you're comingfrom the airport then when you're coming for the city, as you don't have to deal with the crowd outside the station, which doubles as a major bus depot. (3) Some of the Bart lines that stop at Coliseum Station do not go into San Francisco. You'll need to be aware of this, because you'll have to transfer trains at 12th Street Oakland if you get onto a Richmond/Fremont train.

The whole "Bart to OAK" situation is at best a kludge. Don't think it's anything like "just take the subway to the airport." You'll save some bucks, and if you know what you're doing it sort of works, but it won't really be fixed until they build a monorail from the Coliseum Bart station into Oakland Airport.

[This message has been edited by dgolds (edited 07-17-2001).]

Thanks, dgolds, for the details.

For my purposes, BART might be worth a shot. I'll just have a rollaboard carryon and a small laptop bag, so it's all managable. It'll be late on a Sunday afternoon, going from OAK into the city, so hopefully no big crowds, and it's daylight.

If it works...and by that, I mean if it takes less than a hour point-to-point...maybe I'll chance it for my 8:30 am flight out of OAK the next day. We'll see how it goes.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Lokahi:
...If it works...and by that, I mean if it takes less than a hour point-to-point...maybe I'll chance it for my 8:30 am flight out of OAK the next day. We'll see how it goes.</font>

A perhaps obvious suggestion: If you're going to do this, buy TWO Airbart tickets (so you've already got your return one for the morning when time may be tighter) when you exit OAK for San Francisco. That way you won't have to deal at the Colliseum station with trying to buy a $2.00 BART ticket to use on the AirBart



[This message has been edited by cblaisd (edited 07-19-2001).]

FYI-The frequency of Bart trains on Sunday is substantially less than on weekdays so you may have a bit of a wait. They are very good IMHO, at coordinating trains at The downtown Oakland hub and changing people to the trains going to SF or other destinations.

The airport stop is also the Oakland Coliseum stop so if the A's are playing a home game that day it can also be a bit of a madhouse...just wanted you to know the "score" before you get there.

P.S. a friend of mine flys into Oak every other Sunday night and takes Bart to SF and has never complained.

Just as a followup...

Everything was as smooth as silk both ways from OAK to the city. Took a little over an hour to get from OAK late Sunday afternoon, with a 10-minute wait at the Coliseum station for a train. Coming from the city, it was just a 45-minute trip door-to-door...had I known it was going to be that quick, I would have slept in until 5:45 a.m.

And the A's were in Kansas City over the weekend, so absolutely no weekend crowd at all.

Thanks to all for the guidance!