A Great Rail Day Trip

Yesterday, I was writing about my preference for taking the train and promised a great day trip. This also includes seeing the Giants at AT&T (or whatever telecommunications conglomerate it is this year) Park. It is doable from any city on the San Joaquin route, but the Bay Area communities will probably take a BART option.

It should be noted that BART is also a passenger rail system that does have a strong commuter element to it. It ranges far enough where it really isn’t considered a metro, it is definitely inter-city (please don’t read it as “inner-city”, that will contradict my point) and used heavily outside commute hours.

But my day trip also uses a uniquely Bay Area public system, the ferry. In the past, crossing any body of water required a ferry. But as bridges became ubiquitous, ferry companies died out like video stores. Large metropolitan areas situated in a bay or deep water, such as New York or Seattle, still have ferry systems. (This scarcity really only applies to the US. Other countries invest in their public transportation systems and all sorts of modes are thriving.)

You start your morning getting to the train station for the 711 the northbound San Joaquin. For Fresno, it means getting up in time for the 6:50 am departure. A little earlier than you might awake if you were driving, but not too heinous, unless your last call last night was a Jäger Bomb and a shot of tequila.

Cities north of Fresno will have a later departure, certainly in the range of most people’s normal waking time. Cities south of Fresno will have to get up earlier, so they should lay off the late night beer pong. This is especially sage advice for the train that leaves Bakersfield at a very early 4:50 am. (But that far south, they are Dodger fans and their interest in going to a Giants game is somewhere between being sued and attending a time-share sales pitch.)

As previously mentioned, the train is a very comfortable trip. You can grab some grub in the café car (The breakfast burrito is tasty!) or bring your own breakfast and just buy hot coffee. Now, you ARE in the valley, so if you’ve driven 99, you know it’s not the most scenic trip. But the springtime offers some great sights of orchards in bloom and there are a couple of interesting spots from the train.

Going north, just after the Merced stop, the train will travel next to the former Castle Air Force base. You can catch a quick view of the static display of planes that now are part of a public museum. (This is a great collection and worthy of a trip in and of itself.)

Another military historical sight is Port Chicago and the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The train bisects the base and you start having a great view of as the Sacramento River turns into the SF Bay. On the landward side of the train, you can see the bunkers were nuclear weapons were kept during the Cold War. During WWII, there was an ammunition explosion here that killed many servicemen, civilians, and is a chapter in the Civil Rights story. 

The train follows the water’s edge for about 30 minutes. It moves it slowest here. The water is just feet away and the speed reduction helps maintain track integrity. But the outstanding side effect is the extra time you get to enjoy some of the best views of the Bay.

Most of the remaining passengers will get off at Emeryville, which is the bus connection to San Francisco. In the early days of the Bay Bridge, the lower level had train tracks and you could ride all the way into SF. If you are going into the city, this is the transfer station for the Amtrak connection, but you can also get off at Richmond and catch BART. The BART station is adjacent to the Amtrak station and you just walk down one flight of stairs and climb another to reach the BART platform. If my lazy ass can do it, then it’s an option for you, too.

You will stay on the train and get off at the end of the line-Oakland (I’m tempted to make a snarky comment about Oakland and the end of the line, but I live in Fresno and sometimes the pot should just shut the hell up.)

 Jack London Square is just a few feet from the Oakland station and our next step/stop is at the other end of this area. Since the post is getting long and I still have a couple of things to do today (I know, I know, nothing is more important than reading my ramblings), I will stop here and continue on tomorrow’s post.

To be continued…

Up next, the ferry, the game, and the return.