Taking the Sacramento Capitol Corridor Train to San Francisco

Taking the Sacramento Capitol Corridor Train to San Francisco is faster than driving.

The Sacramento Capitol Corridor train looks especially good to us Sacramentans who often drive to San Francisco. Like, the only flaw in our crazy-wild first class Air France experience recently was the limo ride from Sacramento to San Francisco and home again. Leaving at 11 AM on a Saturday morning meant we had to spend 3 hours in traffic, and coming back around 2 PM on a Thursday meant 5 hours. I just laid flat on the long seat and tried to keep myself from sliding off during the stop-and-go.

My husband is my very own personal public transportation guide. He grew up in Chicago, so he’s used to it. Without him, I haven’t been on a bus since my car broke down in the dead of a Minnesota winter in 1972, forcing me to stand on a windy frozen bus corner to catch the crowded bus to work at Checkerboard Grain downtown. According to my mother, I never dressed appropriately for the weather.

Sacramento Capitol Corridor Train is about $99 for two round trip to San Francisco

We often opt for the Sacramento Capitol Corridor train to San Francisco. The accommodations are amazing. Lush, comfy seats, many with a table. You can buy snacks and drinks. The bounce-rate, that with which your body is jostled and jiggled, is pretty minimal.  And it’s fairly fast. It takes about an hour or so to get to the Richmond station. During this commute, you can work on your laptop, read a book, answer phone calls, send email, press your face flat against the window trying to shoot photos that end up nothing but wavy lines of telephone poles.

B.A.R.T. Passengers buying tickets at the dispenser in Richmond, CA.

At the Richmond station, you can go downstairs and buy tickets for the B.A.R.T., which will take you directly into the heart of San Francisco. It’s amazing. You do have to hang on to your little ticket thingy so you can get out at the other end. I got a kick out of the sign taped to the ticket window that warned passengers not to buy fake tickets sold by scammers wandering around, but I guess there is a necessity for such signage.

The B.A.R.T. was not crowded heading into San Francisco from Richmond, until we got closer to the city.

Once on the B.A.R.T., it’s about another 30 minutes or so into the City, and you do have to travel in a tunnel under the Bay, which can be a bit frightening the first time you do it. I mean, what’s the worse that could happen? The train could malfunction and burst through the sea wall tunnel barrier, and you could drown in a painful death. Just don’t think about that.

We watch too many suspense movies, I suspect. It makes me study the people I get on the elevator with or sit near on a plane as I wonder are these the type of people I would like to experience a disaster with? Would I want to survive alongside these yo-yos if an earthquake happened or a plane crashed on a desert isle, or would I wish I had a cyanide pill readily available at my disposal?

Jenny Lewis changed stage costumes several times at the Masonic in Nob Hill.

Our trip to San Francisco this time was to see Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins at the Masonic on Nob Hill, and spend a few days bumming around and suffering through 7-course dinners with wine pairings. We sat next to a couple from Washington State who came to the City, like us, specifically to see Jenny Lewis. My husband thought the guy was weird because he repeated over and over how much he LOVED Jenny Lewis and could not stop thinking about her. His wife was sitting right there. (Although, I will say we once paid $1,500 for tickets to see Jenny Lewis at the Basilica in Minneapolis, so what does that say about us?)

She told me they went to high school together and split up, then 27 years later, got back together and got married. John and Cindy from Washington. Plane crash quality people, though? I don’t know. I had reservations. There was also the woman with the brightly colored tattooes as we stood in line during intermission to buy t-shirts. Finally, I asked her to please stop moving around because I was trying to read her Tats. My husband thought she was gonna clobber me. We became fast friends as we encouraged the others in line to pep it up, whip out that credit card and mooooooovvvveeeee it along people! Yes, definitely plane-crash quality. We high-fived and returned to our seats.

Photos: © Elizabeth Weintraub