What has been the best method of getting from the San Francisco (SFO) airport to YARTS in Merced? The time table for the bus going from Merced to Yosemite only has a few summer morning departure times according to their website. I was looking possibly to take BART to the Amtrak station in the bay area and then arrive in Merced’s Amtrak station for YARTS pick-up. The Amtrak station location is the rub. Which one is best to take the BART train to?
JSpringer
Take BART to the Richmond station. BART runs all the time from SFO and will probably take about 45 minutes to get to Richmond. From SFO you'll first get on the Pittsburg/Bay Point line so you then will have to transfer BART trains at either 12th St Oakland City Center or MacArthur Station to get on the Richmond line.
At the Richmond BART station you can connect to Amtrak and take the San Joaquin line to Merced. I have no idea of what times the trains run though.
You didn't mention what time you're flight arrives but just fyi, BART doesn't run between midnight-4am on weekdays, midnight-6am on Saturdays, and midnight-8am on Sundays, so if YARTS only has morning departures from Merced, you might be stuck there for a night.
ducky
The plane arrives late night at SFO. I’d probably just hang out at the terminal until sunrise and then catch BART to the Amtrak depot. The problem is making the connection time from the San Francisco Amtrak depot work with the Merced YARTS departures. All the Yosemite bound departures are in the morning. The Amtrak station at the Ferry building looks like the one that has the best timetable of Merced bound trains. Question is whether getting from SFO to the Ferry Building is an easy feat.
JSpringer
Getting to the Ferry Building from SFO is easy, just take BART to the Embarcadero station. Exit the station on Market St. and follow it to the plaza at the end of Market St. Cross the plaza towards the water. The building with the big clocktower just on the other side of Embarcadero is the Ferry Building. But just so you know there is no train that runs from there. It’s a bus that will take you to Oakland or Emeryville or Richmond, not sure which station it goes to, but that’s where you’ll catch the train.
ducky
Yeah, the Amtrak train station is in Emeryville. The San Joaquin line is what I would take from there to Merced. As you can guess, many moving parts to this itinerary just to get to the trail head.
JSpringer
It does sounds like a hassle. Fortunately, the Ferry Building is full of great small shops and restaurants. Not sure what time they open up there but you should be able to get a good breakfast at least. Eat up as much as you can cause you will surely hike it off!
ducky
I used to go south to San Jose with Caltrain or Greyhound and connect there to Amtrak but that was years ago.
Apple Pie
If the timetables leave you stuck overnight in Merced, there is at least Motel 6 and a good restaurant called The Wagon Wheel that are both a couple blocks from the train station.
markv