Originally Posted by
Arshavin
I commute on Amtrak from San Jose to Emeryville. I have been commuting for over a year now. My experience with Amtrak has been so disappointing. The train is frequently delayed by more than 30 minutes one way. The frustrating part is there is no real time tracking so that I could plan to leave home/office accordingly. Given the car commute being even worse, this is I guess lesser of the evils. I can not wait for the project to be over by year end. When I accepted the project, I thought Amtrak will be cool way to commute. I mean it could be so much better only if its on-time performance was better. I cannot believe Amtrak is just so tardy operations wise.
Also, now that BART is expanding, Amtrak will lose even more customers if it does not put its act together. Compared to BART, the monthly pass is much more expensive but all I get is frustration in return. Same old excuses of train congestion, drawbridge open, train hit somebody all the time. I get it, just show the darn time real time so that people can plan.
That's a nice ride, if you can make it work--and it sure beats I-880 in a car. I can see why you'd want to do it!
I and colleagues regularly do the Oakland or Emeryville to Davis or Sacramento legs of the Capitol Corridor. It's occasionally delayed, but it would have to be delayed quite a bit to make driving a car a better option (at least, for destinations within walking distance of the Davis or Sacramento stations)--particularly given the current frequency (more-or-less hourly departures until 7 pm), and the ability to use any coach ticket on any train. Those provide enough flexibility that it's not the end of the world if a meeting runs a bit late.