I spend the morning with the relative I’m staying with in the Berkeley Hills. We have a near catastrophe after her dryer fails and I’m stuck bringing damp laundry with me to Sacramento. The goal of the day is to get an Amtrak AGR points quafecta using the last two segments of my ticket from Martinez from yesterday (via Oakland-Jack London Square) and the first two of a ticket from the Oakland Coliseum to Auburn making a photo stop at Suisun/Fairfield. Although my ticket is from Richmond I end up deciding to board in Berkeley and hope it isn’t a problem. I get dropped off there a little after noon.
At 12:12 – Train 733 arrives in Berkeley and stops completely on the ballast, not aligning with the walkways over to the boarding platforms. The conductor apologizes that we have a student engineer. He grabs a stool so we can walk over the ballast. He says he’ll come upstairs to collect tickets. No something I want to ear on a points run. 3 minutes to Emeryville. I’m happy I didn’t decide to make a points run from Berkeley to EMY.
12:16 – stop at Emeryville, no conductor yet.
We leave at 12:20 as the conductor comes to scan my ticket. I had over a paper ticket because the app has somehow become unlinked with my online account since Amtrak’s last update. We go under highways and past a container train in the rail yards. We pass the port of Oakland. I see the old and new Bay Bridges the port and San Francisco Skyline.
12:25 – Go through the Oakland Yards and see a train going through the train wash. There is also an idling Zephyr trainset with the service suspension from Reno to the Bay Area, then we go down the middle of the street into Jack London Square.
I arrive at Jack London at 12:28 and as a northbound train finishes off its station work on the outside track. I get a northbound San Joaquin leaving town going down the middle of the Embarcadero and have a great walk through Jack London Square stopping at a farmers market for some samosas as a snack.
I get back to the station and ask a conductor what track southbound. He’s response is he doesn’t know and will make an announcement when the trains actually arrive. (A northbound is due at the same time, they will pass in the station like at about an hour before).
Train 734 arrives on outside track 2 at 1:57. The destination signs say 727 to San Jose which is wrong!
This train waits for my train to arrive and leaves at 2:02. My train 737 arrives on track 1 with the old Amtrak California logo, not the newer Caltrans logo. We leave at 2:03, come conductor!
He comes upstairs and goes to the other end of the train I go up tell him I’m only going to the Coliseum and ask him to scan my ticket. This wasn’t needed because then the other conductor walks by. We go between BART and a freeway.
At 2:10 we arrive at the Coliseum Station.
I get off and photograph our train leaving, I immediately hear noise from the A’s game currently happening at the stadium outside the station. I have a good walk including getting the entire BART parking lot around the station. I don’t forget to get AirBART either, both the current buses and the construction of the new people mover connection. I enjoy hearing the noises of the A’s game.
At 3:16 train #736 arrives and I leave the Coliseum and head to the last car of the 3 coach and cafe car train. I find a seat by the staircase since my backpack doesn’t fit in the silly overhead bins that close so I put it on the small, vertical rack. We leave the Coliseum going between BART and a highway. We pick up speed and then slow down by a freight yard near the Port of Oakland.
- 3:22 – Slowly enter Oakland-Jack London, no sign of the conductor. The train number is announced and bikes are told to please come to the first car. He repeats this: “If you have a bicycle please come to the first car of the train” bikes ride in the space used for baggage on San Joaquin trains.
- 3:25 – We leave. The conductor comes, asks me if I have a split ticket. I say yes, I’m only going to Suisun City and he understands.
- We spend the two minutes of street running and pass the Charles P. Howard port of Oakland terminal with tons of containers piled up.
- We pass between the Amtrak Coach Yard, following a highway and more of the container terminal with a ton of piggyback cars of the Port of Oakland.
- We pass by an assembled intermodal train, under some highways a d see the old industrial and new condo buildings entering Emeryville.
- At 3:33 we arrive in Emeryville. Two people sit down in front of me, sharing a ten-trip ticket (allowed in California, not on the NEC). The conductor scans and punches for two rides.
- We leave Emeryville for the short ride along the waterfront park, passing a southbound freight back to Berkeley where I started a few hours ago.
- 3:39 – Berkeley, were on the actual platform so no ballast issues. It’s 6 minutes to Richmond, the Capital Corridor here feels like a commuter train and not Amtrak. We regain speed and run by houses, car dealerships and under highways, nothing to impressive.
- 3:40 – Following I-80, get glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance beyond I-80.
- 3:44 – head inland again a southbound Capital Corridor passes
- 3:46 – Richmond, quite a few people boarding, I discover I have the wrong pronunciation for Suisuin my head as the conductor announces the just 3 intermediate stops to Sacramento. I notice Richmond also has the new platform signs like Berkeley that have the direction of travel and destinations beneath them. We leave and go past the BART maintenance facility. I forget to sit on the side of the train for a photo. There is someone paying cash since Richmond lacks an agent.
- We leave and have the bay to ourselves. It’s really scenic.
- 3:53 – Fisherman by rocks. There is a plume of smoke off in the distance as we follow the bay.
- 3:56 – pass some tanker cars on a siding blocking the view.
- 3:58 – pass Rodeo that has beachfront access.
- 4:00 – I see a train on a curve going the otherway as we pass a large industrial plant with a short tunnel. We curve inland and into the river delta
- 4:04 – We go under the C&I Cain sugar plant as a freight passes us the other way and blocks our view. Soon it’s back the view of the estuary as we head inland.
- 4:09 – Another freight train and oil delivery dock.
- 4:11 - We slowly enter Martinez on track 1. I’ve made a full-round trip from yesterday.
- 4:14 – Leave Martinez, 18 minutes to my stop of Suisun. We leave Martinez and start switching onto the tracks that will take us across the Delta.
- 4:16 – Curve off of the San Joaquin line.
- 4:17 – enter the swing bridge. The track on this is bridge is good. The crossing doesn’t take too long, we only slow down a little bit.
- 4:19 – Cross and into a hillside with more views of the delta.
- 4:21 – Pass between a car port (with a bunch of car rail rider cars and marsh land. See some large ships off in the distance in the delta.
- 4:23 – A southbound passes. We keep zooming through the marshes and wetlands. I see windmills off in the distance. There aren’t any roads.
- 4:28 – Reach a few more trees and see some ranches in the marshland. I’ve ridden this track on the California Zephyr before and had forgotten just how scenic it is.
- 4:31 – slow down see a town, it’s Suisun.
At 4:33 the train leaves me on the windy platform. I start my photo essay and to my dismay find out Amtrak’s website is wrong, the depot is closed on weekends! I had checked and might have tried to get up here during the week otherwise. I also need a restroom and their inside the locked depot. Another reason train stations need long hours (Perhaps with a system of scanning your Amtrak ticket to be permitted entry). The little pink building is beneath a highway overpass. I do walk a bit and find the road down to the waterfront. I think I find the perfect ice cream store but its already closed since its Sunday. I get a northbound train from a nearby bridge. I had forgotten how frequent the Capital Corridor is!
- 5:35 – My northbound train #738 leaves and the line becomes agricultural. It is what I will be seeing on Tuesday on the San Joaquin
- 5:49 – Get back to houses, the town of Vacaville I assume. Then were back in the fields. I notice corn.
- 5:54 – The announcement for Davis
- 5:56 – Through the trees and into the town of Davis slowly
- 5:57 – We pass a southbound as we arrive in Davis on the outside track.
- 5:59 – Leave Davis. We pass some trains in the yard and its announced that Sacramento is in 14 minutes. We leave town following I-80 and into fields. I see a bus from the route I took last year across the fields to get Davis.
- We go a bit north of the highway along the grasslands.
- 6:06 – Rise up and over a swamp.
- 6:08 – See the skyline off in the distance and pass some cars getting junked and Ailing Iron Works.
- 6:09 – Cross another track and slow down in the trees. We go over houses in West Sacramento and slow down.
- 6:11 – It’s over switches and we get coming up in just a couple of minutes.
- 6:12 – slowly cross the river and curve into the new station.
We arrive at the new Sacramento platforms at 6:18pm that are a long way from the station. I slowly get photos the train crew around totoally fine with it before going down the ramp to the underpass that takes passengers to a footpath (with electric carts for the elderly and handicapped and new plants). The station is so much less convenient than before the city of Sacramento decided to relocate the railroad tracks for a new redevelopment that is going nowhere. I eventually walk past the fenced off original platforms that have their tracks removed, although the light rail still stops adjacent to them. I then enter the station that is covered in scaffolding, a large construction project for earthquake stabilization.
I walk out of the station and to the Sacromento Hostel where I check in for two nights. I stupidly don’t request an upstairs room and end up in a basement room that is much less nice than those upstairs. I end up spending a relaxing evening on my computer and make it to a restaurant just before it closes at 9:00pm. I get less done that I’m hope, hanging out some with two German siblings traveling together and a Taiwanese Student. The sign I’ve become social in a hostel. Meeting people always trumps the blog.