This week has been quite hectic at work and I've been asked to go to our HQ in San Jose 2 days in a row. Generally, I drive down to SJ once a week or every other week, so 2 days in a row is really testing my sanity with the miserable 680 traffic.
Yesterday, I spent about 4 hours total driving (yes, bad bartmusings, i missed spare the air day!), and today, it took me almost 2 hours (one way) to get here and I can only imagine how bad the way home will be on a Thursday evening.
I may complain about little things on BART here and there but all I need is a 58-mile drive down to San Jose to realize how lucky I have it on all the other days by taking BART to SF!
And with the triple digit heat, sitting in 5mph traffic even with AC, only makes the drive worse.
8 comments:
Caltrain, maybe?
maybe you can help me out here-- i've actually looked into that before. i think i would need to then take bart from Orinda to Pleasanton, then take the ACE train, and walk from the SJ station to my HQ? is that how the easiest route? the time comes out to 2.5 hours or something but that's almost the same as driving in the worst traffic.
I thought there was one you could catch from Emeryville? Maybe that's not Caltrain? I haven't done it myself, but I know some folks who did.
It's still probably not much better than the drive (I forgot you are in Orinda), unless you can get some work done on the train, and count the hours on board as part of your workday.
The train from Emeryville might be Amtrak's Capitol Corridor. Not sure - but the interested person can take a look into it.
Here's a slight detour that'll take you into the shade, for a short bit, on those days you have to drive back home from SJ. When you come down the Sunol Grade, take the Niles Canyon exit (84) & go West toward Fremont. At the 3-way stop-sign, turn right onto Pleasanton-Sunol Rd. This road parallels 680 and offers some shade from the trees, and who knows, you may even travel faster than the freeway speed. When you get near Castlewood golf course, hang a sharp left onto Castlewood Dr. If you miss it, the road will veer to the right, become Sunol Rd & you'll see 680 overpass in front of you. If you make a left here at the golf course, turn right at the next stop sign onto Foothill Rd. More welcoming shade. This will take you to Stoneridge Mall were you can get back on the freeway, or continue up San Ramon Valley Blvd.
Bart to Coliseum cross platform @ Macarthur. Amtrak Capitol Corridor train from Coliseum Atk Sta to San Jose
I take BART from El Cerrito Del Norte to Fremont, then the VTA 180 Bus to the Great Mall in Milpitas. I love it! the Fremont BART has much less people on it than the SF line. Plus VTA is clean, courteous, safe, and always on-time!
My recommendation next time you need to work in San Jose, take BART and the VTA!
The VTA 180 does in fact go to Diridon Station from Fremont BART. It's subject to the same traffic as your car is unfortunately, but it's cheap and easy, and reliable for the most part.
The Amtrak Capitol can be caught from the Coliseum but is not nearly as reliable as BART or Caltrain, and while I suspect it's faster than the VTA bus, it does slow down quite a bit in the marshes around Alviso. It's a very comfortable ride with a bar car for Coffee. Downside - it's expensive compared to even BART. Should you decide to go this route, look into multi-ride tickets, which assumes you will be doing this with some frequency.
Is there anyway to get a cheap ticket... and i dont mean 2 dollars off a 45 dollar ticket...what is up with that "discount"?
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