Ah, but if you're coming from the South Bay, BART to SFO has just screwed up what used to be a simple and quick method of getting to SFO.
The old way was take Caltrain to Millbrae, where a shuttle bus met the train and drove (free of charge) to the terminals. The bus was coordinated with the train schedule.
The current way, which necessitates allowing 45 minutes to be sure you'll get to your flight *once you've gotten to Millbrae* is:
1) Get off Caltrain. Frantically try to buy a BART ticket (which you can't do on the train or at a train station) from 1 or 2 machines along with just about everyone else on the train. Reasonable chance you'll miss a BART train if it's there already due to time needed for everyone to buy a ticket.
2) If you missed a BART train there, wait 20 minutes for the next one (admittedly, this is the big potential time gap).
3) This one's new since the start of this year. BART doesn't run from Millbrae to SFO anymore. Instead, you have to take BART to San Bruno, the next station up the line, then cross over to BART heading in the opposite direction, which does go to SFO. Adding time to the trip. Admittedly, they do seem to have at least synced up schedules so you only have to wait a minute or so for a train once at San Bruno.
Oh, and if you get the bright idea to drive to San Bruno rather than Millbrae if driving rather than training, the Millbrae-SFO BART fare is $1.50, including that silly round trip to San Bruno, while the San Bruno to SFO fare is $4.50. WTF?
4) Two trains and 10 or so minutes later, you've finally reached SFO. If you're in the International Terminal, great (although you're in the far end from the security checkpoint and actual gates and it's a fair hike across it). Otherwise, you have a couple of minutes walk with escalator to Airtrain, SFO's internal transit.
5) Get on Airtrain, wait for it to get to somewhere near your terminal.
6) This has actually gotten better, although it took over two years; cross a skybridge to actually get into the terminal, then escaltor down to check in level. Previously there were long convoluted routes to get you down to street level then across to the actual terminals.
So, to take Caltrain/BART to SFO for a domestic flight from the South Bay, you have to get on four separate trains, pay via two different, unconnected systems (alas, it's probably not cost effective for Caltrain to revise their ticket machines to offer a ticket that works with the BART ticket readers), and allocate more time to get from Millbrae to your terminal than it took you to get to Millbrae from as far south as Mountain View. Bring back the old shuttle bus!
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-04-19 07:24 pm (UTC)The old way was take Caltrain to Millbrae, where a shuttle bus met the train and drove (free of charge) to the terminals. The bus was coordinated with the train schedule.
The current way, which necessitates allowing 45 minutes to be sure you'll get to your flight *once you've gotten to Millbrae* is:
1) Get off Caltrain. Frantically try to buy a BART ticket (which you can't do on the train or at a train station) from 1 or 2 machines along with just about everyone else on the train. Reasonable chance you'll miss a BART train if it's there already due to time needed for everyone to buy a ticket.
2) If you missed a BART train there, wait 20 minutes for the next one (admittedly, this is the big potential time gap).
3) This one's new since the start of this year. BART doesn't run from Millbrae to SFO anymore. Instead, you have to take BART to San Bruno, the next station up the line, then cross over to BART heading in the opposite direction, which does go to SFO. Adding time to the trip. Admittedly, they do seem to have at least synced up schedules so you only have to wait a minute or so for a train once at San Bruno.
Oh, and if you get the bright idea to drive to San Bruno rather than Millbrae if driving rather than training, the Millbrae-SFO BART fare is $1.50, including that silly round trip to San Bruno, while the San Bruno to SFO fare is $4.50. WTF?
4) Two trains and 10 or so minutes later, you've finally reached SFO. If you're in the International Terminal, great (although you're in the far end from the security checkpoint and actual gates and it's a fair hike across it). Otherwise, you have a couple of minutes walk with escalator to Airtrain, SFO's internal transit.
5) Get on Airtrain, wait for it to get to somewhere near your terminal.
6) This has actually gotten better, although it took over two years; cross a skybridge to actually get into the terminal, then escaltor down to check in level. Previously there were long convoluted routes to get you down to street level then across to the actual terminals.
So, to take Caltrain/BART to SFO for a domestic flight from the South Bay, you have to get on four separate trains, pay via two different, unconnected systems (alas, it's probably not cost effective for Caltrain to revise their ticket machines to offer a ticket that works with the BART ticket readers), and allocate more time to get from Millbrae to your terminal than it took you to get to Millbrae from as far south as Mountain View. Bring back the old shuttle bus!