<p>Hve trolled past threads because I remember someone entering something about riding Amtrak to & from Cal Poly, SLO. Can’t find the original thread - do think it ws not titled as such, just commenting on using Amtrak instead of car transportation.</p>
<p>Any comments beyond what I can find on the Amtrak site?</p>
<p>We tried it in off-season and found cost for 1 rider to be about same as cost of gas. It did take longer than the drive. How much longer depends on driving habits. S liked having the time to DO something - read, study, etc. </p>
<p>Quality of the ride kind of depends on who you're sitting next to. We were lucky. Food...not impressed. </p>
<p>Trying it again for Thanksgiving. S probably won't like it quite so much then.</p>
<p>What was the ease of bus from & to the campus? By schedule, it looks as though there is only one daily train to catch from SLO to San Jose @ 3:45p. I'd hoped for more ... student has afternoon class & it would be possibly be tight.
Is bus connection free? Does one have to have train ticket in hand?
Appreciate any & all advice, etc.</p>
<p>When you check schedules, check from SLO (San Luis Obispo train station) as well as from SLP (Cal Poly). You should see a few more options if SLO is the starting point instead of SLP. </p>
<p>S is taking bus from SLP to Santa Barbara and then train from there south. Last time it was all train all the way. I believe its a dedicated Amtrak bus rather than Greyhound. </p>
<p>There should be free bus service between Cal Poly and the SLO train station for students. I have no experience with that, though. </p>
<p>can anyone else chime in?</p>
<p>I'm a third-year Cal Poly student, and I've used both the SLO city buses and Amtrak bus routinely now for two years. I don't have a car in SLO, so aside from friends' cars I really just rely on buses to get around SLO and to my hometown in the Bay Area. So far, bus riding has honestly worked just fine.</p>
<p>I think most about time, money, and the bus-riders sitting next to me when evaluating my bus experiences:</p>
<p>Time. With both the SLO city buses and Amtrak buses, I'm restricted to bus schedules. But this isn't bad. In SLO, city buses pass many main bus stops, including the Amtrak station, about every thirty minutes. Amtrak buses leave the Cal Poly campus approximately every five hours; I know San Jose-bound Amtrak buses leave campus as early as 12 in the morning to as late as 5:30 in the evening, seven days a week. Here are some schedules: SLO</a> bus schedule, Amtrak</a> website.</p>
<p>Money. Cal Poly students ride SLO's city buses for free. Cal Poly independently funds[/url</a>] the SLO Transit bus system so that students never pay for bus service via tuition unlike other universities ([url=<a href="http://pt.berkeley.edu/pay/transit/classpass%5DUC">http://pt.berkeley.edu/pay/transit/classpass]UC</a> Berkeley--ha!). From Cal Poly to San Jose, an Amtrak bus ride costs about 30 dollars (round trip: 60 dollars); to San Jose by car, gas for my friends' cars costs 20 dollars one way, 40 dollars round trip. I still think Amtrak is cheaper--not owning a car, I don't pay car insurance.</p>
<p>Fellow Bus-Riders. There are always Cal Poly students on every city bus in SLO. I can always find fellow Mustangs ready to have conversations during a ten-minute bus ride downtown. On the Amtrak bus, it's the same thing: both Cal Poly and UCSB students use the Amtrak bus, and sometimes it’s like a big party--it's totally fun, even if you don't know anyone. During Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break, the Amtrak bus is packed with students--tickets for holiday-time buses quickly sell out. During non-holiday times, some Amtrak bus drivers allow students to board the bus from Cal Poly's campus without a ticket so long as the students buy a ticket at a station along that day's bus trip.</p>
<p>Well I think that's about it. I hope I gave enough information, and I hope I was as clear as possible. Go buses!</p>
<p>cpengr - Thanks for the clear, concise info & asides about bus atmosphere. Son is going to try it tomorrow. The bus departures fit his schedule better than the train this semester. The bus stop in front of Vista Grande Dining Hall is much closer & convenient than getting to the train station. I was (am) a little thrown with the idea of not paying until after arriving at his destination (couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do an online bus only ticket). I'll weigh in after he makes it home for the weekend.</p>
<p>Bus went fine. Paying @ station after arrival worked out as Amtrak said it would. ONLY question that remains is how to purchase ride ticket before getting on Amtrak bus before riding ... as one would need before holiday rides (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.). Can't find a place to do so online, so ... any advice? We are trying to figure this out before November is here. Thanks.</p>
<p>Amtrak's website sells bus & train tickets. Do not wait until last minute to get holiday tickets; I don't think you'd get a spot buying tickets at the station the day of departure. If you're wondering about thanksgiving, those tickets WILL sell out and buses will be full, so like anything plan ahead. I've never tried buying bus tickets at the station but if ordering online you will also want to give some time for the tickets to mail. Express mail supposedly does not work for dorm mailboxes; on the other hand I've received regular delivery with zero problems.</p>
<p>When purchasing online, amtrak will force you to buy a return train ticket with any bus ticket. When I lived in the sierramadre dorms I arranged to take bus home then train back (city bus will bring you back in front of the dorms from there). Tip: a friend of mine pointed out that you could simply return any unused train ticket for a slightly deducted refund in the case you didn't need it.</p>
<p>I have always felt that the late midnight bus took less time than the afternoon times since there is less traffic, but this might just be my imagination. I can manage to get back home around late-5AM taking the bus from poly to SJ then walking a bit to the vta bus stop which takes me the excruciatingly slow last several miles to my home. I do not doubt that compared to a car, buses are really quite a drag!!</p>
<p>edit- a last tip for first-time amtrakers...keep a cell/watch alarm ready if you plan to sleep on the nighttime bus, just in case you sleep through your stop. at the very least tell the person next to you where you're getting off. sitting & waiting for pickup in an empty train station, away from home, in the cold morning is really no fun.</p>