Stay night in Emeryville or go from OAK to Amtrak?
I am flying into OAK from LAS to take the Amtrak California Zephyr train ride from Emeryville to Denver. My Southwest flight arrives at 7:10 a.m. in OAK. I am currently planning to take the free ride to BART from OAK and then pay for BART ride to MacArthur Station. I am hoping to catch the Hollis Emeryville Go Around bus to the Amtrak Station; if bus is not there within a few minutes, then pay the money for a cab to take me instead.
My question is whether I can make it to the 8:45 loading time for Amtrak after landing in OAK at 7:10? I would rather stay in Vegas the extra night (free room) than pay for a room in Emeryville. It appears that getting from OAK to MacArthur Station would take about a half hour or so. So that would put me at between 8 and 8:15 for getting to MacArthur. I would prefer to take the free shuttle, of course, but I have read that this Emeryville Go Around bus is not always timely. Are there usually cabs waiting outside of the MacArthur BART station? And would morning rush hour traffic make this roughly 2 mile drive plausible for me no matter which service I'd use?
For the record, I will not have any checked luggage to get at OAK or to have loaded onto Amtrak; just a carryon bag and a personal item (smaller bag).