I need to go from SFO to Berkeley; my flight arrive at 7:40 am. I'm assuming BART is a better choice to get the Berkeley as soon as possible (9:00 am) given morning rush hour traffic. I don't mind paying for a cab if necessary but I'm assuming the cab will take longer during that time of day.

Are my assumptions correct? It looks like the best route is to transfer to the Richmond line at Balboa Park.

Any local advice would certainly be appreciated.

Where in berkeley are you going to need to be?

The 7:52 train from SFO gets to downtown berkeley station at 8:49 and the 8:07 rolls in at 9:04. Depending on where you need to get in berkeley you may have to add on some time. A cab would be slow getting to downtown SF but once you hit the bay bridge you would have no traffic to the destination. I don't drive up 101 anymore since I moved but it would be pretty close to a wash. Getting a cab at berkeley bart is pretty dicey usually.

Another option is to drive down to Dumbarton Bridge and take 880N although I'm not sure how much time it would save you during the morning peak hours.

BART is your best bet. However, I'm not sure if you'd make the 7:52 train since your flight arrives at 7:40 considering you need to walk from the gate to the train to take to BART station.

You will probably be in Berkeley a little past 9am. If you are going to downtown Berkeley, take the dublin pleasanton train and transfer at Lake Merrit station to take the Richmond Train. Or, if you are traveling from Mon-Sat, you can transfer at any station before you cross the bay (past Daly city) to transfer to Richmond train. If you are going to Berkeley closer to rockridge, you need to still take dublin pleasanton train and transfer after Daly city to take the Pittsburg Bay Point train.

I'm heading to the UC-Berkeley campus. I'm starting to realize no matter what way I go, it will be tough to be there by 9:00. I have to hope for an early UAL arrival at SFO.

You would not want to go to the Dumbarton Bridge (which is in Palo Alto, very south), you would want to go to the San Mateo bridge (which is in San Mateo/Foster City) if you went south and that would add a lot of time to the trip. You would not gain a whole bunch of time as you would face the traffic heading north to the bay bridge maze through oakland at that time.

Depending on where you are going on campus you will either be 5 to 20 minutes late as downtown berkeley dumps you off on shattuck which is on the west side of campus. you then get to walk up the hill to whereever you are going. A cab might be a better choice at this point albeit an expensive option.

Yea, San Mateo Bridge is the one...it's been a while since I've been down to South Bay